The ballot upon the question of declaring a general coal
strike to establish a minimum wage was held by the Miners' Federation on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The exact result will be known early next week ; but some preliminary returns were published on Friday, which seem to show that there is hardly any question that the ballot will decide by a large majority in favour of a national stoppage; for the Mid- land miners, as well as those in Northumberland and Durham, although themselves without enthusiasm for a strike, are almost certain to support the remainder of the Federation from a sense of loyalty. Unless, therefore, some settlement can be reached at the last moment a general strike may bo expected to begin at the end of February ; and it is signifi- cant that the Admiralty are to take the precaution of stocking the depOts fully during the next few weeks. The firm attitude which is likely to be adopted by the colliery owners was indicated by the tone of a speech made by Mr. D. A. Thomas at Cardiff on Monday. On the general situation likely to be created by a strike we comment elsewhere. Two other smaller trade disputes broke out during the week, but both were happily settled. One of these was a strike of Bradford woolcombers against non-union labour, the other was a dispute in the shipyards on Tyneside and in Scotland with regard to the use of discharge notes. In the former case the men, after a ballot, returned to work ; in the latter the crisis has been postponed that the question may be discussed at a conference next week.
Previous page
