‘Revolution in the coalfields’: industrial relations in wartime south Wales, 1939-45

ABSTRACT

Labour unrest in the United Kingdom during the Second World War was concentrated within the coal industry that accounted for around half of all strikes. This article proposes that institutional industrial relations within this regionally constituted industry should be analysed through a regional lens, as opposed to a national approach. It uses a case study of the south Wales coalfield to examine how the regional union and employers’ association interacted with each other and the state to govern industrial relations. It makes two arguments. One is that war transformed their relative power given the need to produce sufficient coal to fuel the war economy. The South Wales Miners Federation gained influence as it offered co-operation to boost production, but the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coalowners Association lost agency as it sought unsuccessfully to maintain pre-war approaches, while ongoing crises forced the government to accelerate interventions. The other is that these shifts enabled regional unions to outflank owners and co-opt the state to achieve their goals within industrial relations; the recreation of national bargaining machinery and obtaining higher wages. Although unions could not secure nationalization, the war ended with a consensus that the ownership status quo was untenable.

KEYWORDS:

• Coalmining
• industrial relations
• strikes
• wales
• union
• employers association

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Professor Edmund Heery of Cardiff University and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. South Wales Miners Library (Hereafter SWML) President’s Address to SWMF Annual Conference, 1944, 5.

2. The National Archives (Hereafter TNA) LAB 34/54-57. Trade Disputes.

3. TNA, LAB 34/54, Trade Disputes, 1939.

4. TNA, LAB 12/82, Ministry of Labour Monthly Report, Wales, January 1940, 2.

5. TNA, POWE 20/62, Board of Investigation into Miners’ Claims, 9 June 1942 10.

6. Western Mail, ‘South Wales Will Dig’, 16 April 1940 6.

7. SWML, SWMF Conference, Cardiff, 2 March 1940.

8. SWML, President’s Address to SWMF Annual Conference, 1940.

9. TNA, POWE 22/225, Note of the Under-Secretary for Mines Meeting with Mr Arthur Horner, 20 October 1939. Letter from the Under-Secretary for Mines to Mr Horner, 4 November 1939.

10. National Library of Wales (Hereafter NLW), MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 6 November 1939; SWML, SWMF Executive Committee Minutes, 10 October 1939.

11. NLW, MSWCOA Minutes, 6 November 1939.

12. SWML, SWMF Executive Committee Minutes, 14 November 1939.

13. TNA, LAB 12/82, Ministry of Labour Monthly Report, Wales, 11 November 1940 3.

14. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 8 July 1940.

15. Western Mail, ‘Plans to Increase South Wales Coal Production’, 5 June 1940 3.

16. SWML, President’s Address to SWMF Annual Conference, 1940.

17. NLW, BT 4/9/1. Joint Production Committee Minutes, 7 April 1941.

18. NLW, BT 4/9/1. Joint Production Committee Minutes, 18 November 1940.

19. TNA, LAB 12/82, Ministry of Labour Monthly Report, Wales, September 1940, 3.

20. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 12 August 1940.

21. TNA, POWE 20/62, Royal Ordnance Factories, Typical Weekly Earnings; Estimated Average earnings per shift, May 1942; Estimated Average Earnings Per Shift, 1942.

22. TNA, LAB 10/366, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Report, 27 April 1940.

23. NLW, BT 4/9/1. Joint Production Committee Minutes, 7 April 1941, 26.

24. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 3 June 1941.

25. TNA, LAB 12/82, Ministry of Labour Monthly Report, Wales, August 1941,7.

26. Western Mail, 21 July 1941 ‘Miners’ Protest to Mr Bevin’, 3.

27. TNA, LAB 34/56, Trade Disputes, 1941.

28. Western Mail, ‘Closed Shop Plan for Welsh Pits’, 9 May 1942 2.

29. TNA, POWE 20/62, Average Weekly Earnings, 1938–1942 [undated]

30. Western Mail, ‘1,200 Miners Idle after Dispute Over Boy’, 15 May 1942 1; TNA, LAB 34/57, Trade Disputes, 1942.

31. NLW, BT 4/9/1. Joint Production Committee Minutes, 16 February 1942 22.

32. TNA, LAB 10/368, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Report. 30 May 1942.

33. The Economist, ‘Shortage of Coal’, 11 April 1942; ‘Plan for Coal’, 18 April 1942.

34. House of Commons, Hansard, Vol. 380, col. 1293, 11 June 1942.

35. TNA, POWE 20/62, Board of Investigation into Miners’ Claims, First Day, 9 June 1942 5, 13.

36. TNA, POWE 20/62, Report of the Board of Investigation, June 1942, 6–7.

37. TNA, POWE 20/83, Memorandum Dealing with the Operation of the Coal Control, 3 January 1944.

38. TNA, CAB 71/13, Progress Report on Operation of the White Paper Scheme by the Minister of Fuel and Power, 17 June 1942 3.

39. Western Mail, ‘Pit Managers Losing Authority’, 11 October 1943.

40. TNA, LAB 10/368, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Reports. 4 July 1942 1.

41. TNA, POWE 22/150, Productivity of Individual Pits, [undated], 3.

42. TNA, POWE 22/150, Concentration Prospects, 11 February 1943 3.

43. TNA, LAB 8/1473/6, History of Labour Supply from May 1940, 6.

44. TNA, POWE 22/150, Note for the Concentration Committee, 12 April 1943 3.

45. Western Mail, ‘Miners Must Respond To War Appeal’, 20 August 1942 4.

46. Colliery Guardian, 19.9.1942; 23.10.1942; cited in Howells, 280–81.

47. TNA, LAB 34/57, Trade Disputes 1943.

48. TNA, LAB 34/57, Trade Disputes 1943.

49. TNA, POWE 26/441, Letter from Ministry of Fuel and Power to National Conciliation Board, 30 January 1945.

50. TNA, POWE 20/78, Memorandum by the Regional Controller, Wales, 5 June 1943 8.

51. SWML, SWMF Executive Report, 1942–43, 2–5.

52. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 1 February 1943.

53. Western Mail, ‘Growth of Goodwill in South Wales Coalfield’, 19 August 1943.

54. TNA, LAB 12/82, Ministry of Labour Monthly Report, Wales, August 1942, 2.

55. NLW, BT 4/9/1. Joint Production Committee Minutes, 2 February 1942 31.

56. NLW BT 3/5/9 Penallta Pit Production Committee Minutes [undated]; Abergorki Pit Production Committee Minutes, 1 November 1943.

57. TNA, POWE 20/78, Memorandum by the Regional Controller, Wales, 5 June 1943.

58. TNA, CAB 71/13, Progress Report on Operation of the White Paper Scheme by the Minister of Fuel and Power, 17 June 1943 5.

59. Western Mail, ‘Coal Output Impeded by Wilful Acts of Damage’, 17 November 1942; POWE, 26/ 424, Letter from Lord Rothschild, 6 September 1943.

60. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 22 March 1943.

61. TNA, LAB 10/466, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Report, 25 January 1944.

62. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 28 February 1944.

63. TNA, LAB 10/466, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Reports. 10 March 1944. Porter strikes recorded as one dispute in official data; data set in this article is based on a per pit definition.

64. SWML, President’s Address to SWMF Annual Conference, 1944, 4–5.

65. TNA, LAB 10/446, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Report, 31 March 1944.

66. Times, ‘Gravity of Strikes’, 5 April 1944.

67. Western Mail, ‘Minister’s Pledge to Discuss Welsh Coalfield Aims’, 9 March 1944 1.

68. TNA, LAB 10/446, Ministry of Labour Industrial Relations Officer, Wales Region, Weekly Report, 8 September 1944; 15 September 1944.

69. Western Mail, ‘Call for More Coal’, 29 December 1944.

70. TNA, POWE 20/88, Note on Clerical Workers at Powell Dyffryn, 11 October 1944.

71. The Miner, ‘Report on 1944–45 SWMF Annual Conference’, April/May 1945, 7–8.

72. SWML, SWMF Annual Conference Report l944, Presidential Address, 22.

73. NLW, MSWCOA General Meeting Minutes, 22 February 1944.

74. NUM Special Conference Report, 20 December 1946 12. Cited in Taylor, 38.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leon Gooberman

Leon Gooberman is Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations at Cardiff Business School. He researches the evolving nature of employer collective action, as well as the processes and impacts of regional deindustrialisation. Among his publications are From Depression to Devolution: Economy and Government in Wales, 1934–2006 (University of Wales Press, 2017).