The Bedwas Dispute As a result of the refusal of
Sir Samuel Instone and his fellow-directors of the Bedwas Colliery in South Wales to allow the employees of the colliery to indicate by secret ballot whether they prefer to join the South Wales Miners' Federation—the regular and established miners' union—or the comparatively new Miners' Industrial Union, on which the owners look with a benevolent eye, the whole of the South Wales coalfield is threatened with stoppage on Monday. This kind of dispute is familiar. Sir Samuel Instone holds that miners are intimidated into joining the Federation, while the Federation can retort that the Bedwas men are being compelled by Sir Samuel Instone to join the Industrial Union as condition of employment at his colliery. Sir Samuel has not the support of other South Wales owners, who, whether they like the Miners' Federation or not, recognise the necessity of working with it. The proposal that a ballot should be taken, at which the men could express their own.preference freely, is on the face of it reasonable, not the question of Principle is so fundamental that it is not entirely surpris- ing, though it is gravely regrettable, that the men should have taken the drastic and irrational step of threatening a stoppage of the whole field. The Secretary for Mines is active, but he can of course do no more than press his counsel on both sides.
Previous page
