The British Coal Trade (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1915. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... cases of the owners selling the pit rather than face the loss of a prolonged strike. The buyers have either had to make profit possible by expensive improvements of machinery, or to face a long strike in reducing the price list. Presumably they will have taken into account the possibility of much expense in reducing the price list when valuing the colliery for purchase. It is indeed becoming moi-e and more difficult to effect any change at all in price lists once established; and it is also becoming more difficult to fix a price list in the first instance. An interesting case is that of the Gelli pit belonging to Messrs. Cory Brothers, in South Wales. The pit was a comparatively new one which Messrs. Cory Brothers had taken over and wished to open. The price list they offered proved unacceptable to the men, who went out on strike in October, 1910. After some months the executive of the South Wales Miners' Federation took control of the case, and they furnished the strike pay. In spite of various attempts and negotiations, neither side has seen its way to offer sufficient for the parties to meet and make a bargain, with the result that the pit has remained closed for more than three years, and there is still no prospect of its being opened. The men on strike gradually drifted away to find employment in other pits, and in September, 1913, the Miners' Federation ceased payment of strike pay. The result is that the pit is practically of no commercial value, because no member of the South Wales Miners' Federation can be got to work there; and as this includes practically all the experienced men, the company has no prospect of opening the pit at the price list it offers.1 The negotiation of a price list is indeed a most dramatic event in the life of a mining town, the...