Miners' Hours and Wages Apparently the miners' representatives in all
areas feel that they will now have to accept either a reduction in wages or a continuance of the spread-over arrangements which the veto of the Miners' Federation has made illegal. South Wales has chosen the former, North Wales, Scot- land, and Lancashire some version of the latter alterna- tive. The Federation itself is more obstinate, and has approached both Mr. Shinwell and even the Liberal Party, without obtaining from either a promise of support for a new minimum wage act. The contention of the Federa- tion is that the question of a living wage for the miner should be independent of the economic position of the industry, and that the wage should vary only with the cost of living. The North Wales miners, however, when their representative saw Mr. Shinwell on Tuesday, took the state of industry into account in giving their reasons for accepting the new agreement, and the attitude of the Scottish miners will probably be similar. The Federation appears by its insistence to be forfeiting its claim to speak for the miners as a whole.
Previous page
