Grudge Fight

Great Britain's factories were threatened last week with shutdowns by the greatest coal strike since the general walkout of 1926. More than a tenth, possibly a seventh, of 710,000 miners were out. Their tempers were short, their attitude adamant, their position clear. They were in open conflict with Winston Churchill's Government.

The disturbed area centered in South Wales, spread into North Wales, England's Durham, Scotland. Basic causes of the strike lay in the uneconomic condition of British coal mining, with its cumulative bitterness between miners and mineowners. The mines are now under Government control, but the miners' discontent remains unchanged. Better off than they were before the war, they are determined not to lose what they have gained--and in the Government's latest move they thought they saw a threat.

In January the Government ordered minimum wage increases as awarded by the National Reference Tribunal. But special payments for high output, for men who have to work in water, and other bonuses (called "anomalies") were discontinued. In addition, the miners were required to pay 30-c- to $1.20 more a week for the coal they used themselves.

Far from being conciliatory, the Government award was the last straw. The South Welsh miners revolted against their own union leaders, got sympathetic support in other districts. Arthur Horner, militantly Communist union leader in South Wales, squirmed at the prospect of losing members and influence. Said he: "The men are in a hell of a mood. There used to be a time when a hymn would start them back, but not now. Disappointments have made them think the Government is pulling their leg."

Fuel Minister Gwilym Lloyd George hastily laid new proposals before the industry, owners and miners alike. For him the miners had the same disbelieving disdain they accorded their own union leaders.

Production fell off 420,000 tons in a week. Strikers would be cold as well as idle: household coal rations were severely cut. Promised a complete review of the wage issue, about a third of the strikers voted to return this week.

Said one miner to an Evening Standard reporter: "It's like this: the boys at the front are fighting for us and we are fighting for them. If we don't fight for our rights, now, there won't be any rights for them when they come home."

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