East and Steer
BY MARGARET STEWART SUDDEN descent of reporters, commentators, photo- , graphers and newsreel men on the little village of Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, shattering the bleak calm of a West Welsh Sunday, created nearly as much stir as the cause of the invasion.
The miners were eager to talk, and I found a general air of incredulity and a Micawber-like hope that something would turn up. The pits wouldn't really be shut—the NUM would save them—the NCB couldn't let all that anthracite lie undug-- both pits had been closed before and reopened, surely this would happen again this time. Union leaders have ordered the men to work as never before between now and closing day (May 26) to try to win a reprieve, and are to appeal to the Board to reconsider their decision. Whatever the outcome of these moves—and it is hard to imagine they will succeed— there is certainly no element of bluff about last week's decision to close the pits, after repeated warnings to the men to mend their ways.
D. M. Rees, the gentle, harassed chairman of the South Wales Board, who looks as if he would be very much at home in a university common-room, gave me a definite and categorical statement. 'This time we are not bluffing. The Board has not got a policy of deliberately shutting down pits. The responsibility rests entirely on the shoulders of the men at East and Steer. They have shut the pits themselves.'
For East and Steer would try the patience of a saint. They have a long and sorry history, dating back to the days of private ownership. Since nationalisation, there is one long catalogue of go-slows and wildcat stoppages, often for the most trivial reasons, with indiscipline bordering an anarchy and men ignor- ing their own leaders. For the record : Between them they lost £.405,000 last year, one-tenth of the loss made by the 30 pits in the Neath area. Since vesting date, there have been 250 stop- pages, a fifth of the total in the area. Since January of last year alone the loss totals 36,000 tons. Output per man-shift was only 9.2 cwt. at East and 7.4 at Steer, compared with the average of 19 cwt. for the whole Division. Yet at the neighbouring and similar pit of Cwmgorse, the men produced twice as much per shift at the face and actually made a profit last year.
It is not easy to tell just why these two pits should be so bad. They reflect, in a greatly magnified way, the general malaise of the coal industry in times of full employment. There appears to be something very wrong with labour relations and with the Coal Board's 'communications' with their workers, to judge from the comments of the men themselves. From the welter of conflicting statements, half-truths and Welsh exaggerations, the picture emerges of a thoroughly discontented, disgruntled and disillusioned crowd.
Out tumbled their tale of woe, so much of it familiar, so much of it obviously culled from the anti-nationalisation press. Too many officials, breathing down their necks, giving contra- dictory orders—too many Coal Board cars and mansions—too many bureaucrats in Cardiff and London interfering in things they knoliv nothing about. Mr. X, the manager, is a b--. Working conditions are the worst in the area, the worst for slack and stones in the coal, the worst for dangerous dust. And sticking out like a sore thumb is the story of the, pithead baths. These were built but never opened, because the men failed to honour their undertakings to co-operate. This, say the miners. was sheer spite by the NCB, and they regard themselves as the victims of a Board vendetta. 'Why pick on us?' they asked. 'There are just as bad pits elsewhere.' Perhaps about one-third of the pits in South Wales are bad, with one-third good and the rest indifferent. The men in the other black spots, at some collieries in the Rhondda and Maesteg areas, will back the East and Steer men, being afraid, that they will be next on the list. But among many miners, delegates to the Porthcawl conference I found a widespreno reaction that 'they have asked for it' (an attitude not unlikc that of the Coal Board). Certainly many of the older mineo. though they, too, may be disillusioned about nationalisation, are sick and tired of the truculent minority which is giving ti;'e whole coalfield a bad name. The attitude of the Welsh Ni)w: leadership is particularly interesting. The President, Will Paynter, a shrewd Communist and ex-Spanish War fighter, his 'man Friday' Dai Dan Evans, and Gaitskellite General Secre. tary Will Crews are not prepared to pull the coalfield out on strike over the East and Steer men. The Communists, wh° dominate the NUM Executive in South Wales, believe in unit and discipline, and have no use for the anarcho-syndicalists of Gwaun-cae-Gurwen. This does not mean that the NUM leaders are indifferent to the fate of the thousand men and their families and the social effects of the closure. They are pledged to 'd°, everything possible' to save them, but this 'everything possihi° does.not include a strike. Looking at is as an outside visitor, it is impossible not to feel the impending tragedy of Gwaun-cae-Gurwen. But from th' point of view of the nation and the industry the Board had lo make the decision to shed the load.
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