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“Three Days Down the Pit and Three Days Play”: Underemployment in the East Midland Coalfields between the Wars*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Colin P. Griffin
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Conflicting interpretations of economic and social conditions in inter-war Britain are a staple diet of the historiography of the period. Can it be best characterized as one of social deprivation and economic decay or of social and economic improvement? The level of unemployment and its effects on those who experienced it is a critical element in the debate and this study will contribute to it in a number of ways. It will, through a case study of the East Midland coalfields, emphasize that underemployment (or short-time working) has been comparatively neglected in accounts of unemployment and the “real” incidence of the latter therefore underestimated. Moreover, the effects of underemployment were no less real in terms of depressing living standards than more permanent forms of unemployment. The traditional view of the relatively prosperous underemployed East Midlands' miner compared to his fully employed Durham or South Wales counterpart is, therefore, no longer tenable, The view, popularized recently by Benjamin and Kochin, that this form of unemployment was voluntary in nature will also be questioned as will the generalization that miners' trade unions preferred wage maintenance to maximising employment levels in their industrial relations strategies. Trade union officers gave a high priority to achieving an employment situation which combined work spreading and the receipt of statutory unemployment benefit by their members. The partial failure of these endeavours to mitigate the full impact of short-time working on miners' income is further evidence of the need to qualify the “optimistic” interpretation of living standards in inter-war Britain.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , December 1993 , pp. 321 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1993

References

1 See, for example, Stevenson, John, “Myth and Reality: Britain in the 1930's” in Sked, A. and Cook, C., eds. Crisis and Controversy, Essays in Honour of A. J. P. Taylor (1976), pp. 91, 108Google Scholar. The argument is expanded in Stevenson, John and Cook, Chris, The Slump. Society and Politics During the Depression (1979)Google Scholar, particularly chapters 1 to 3.

2 Benjamin, Daniel K. and Kochan, Lewis A., “Searching for an Explanation of Unemployment in Interwar Britain”, Journal of Political Economy, 87 (1987), p. 474Google Scholar.

3 Glynn, Sean and Shaw, Stephen, “Wage Bargaining and Unemployment” in Crick, B., ed., Unemployment (1981), pp. 123–124Google Scholar.

4 See, for example, Webster, Charles, “Healthy or Hungry Thirties?,” History Workshop Journal, 13 (1982), pp. 110–129CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Mitchell, Margaret, “The Effects of Unemployment on the Social Conditions of Women and Children in the 1930s,” History Workshop Journal, 19 (1985), pp. 105–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Whiteside, Noel, “Counting the Cost: Sickness and Disability among Working People in an Era of Industrial Recession, 1920–1939,” Economic History Review, 40, 2 (1987), pp. 228–246CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Sked and Cook, Crisis and Controversy p. 108.

6 B.P.P., , Ministry of Labour. Reports of Investigations into the Industrial Conditions in Certain Depressed Areas, 1934Google Scholar, Cmd. 4738. Or as The Times put it in a series of articles on the Durham coalfield: “There are districts of England, heavily populated, whose plight no amount of trade recovery can ever cure, because their sole industry is not depressed but dead,” in The Times, 20 March 1934 quoted by Barry Supple, The History of the British Coal Industry Vol. 4; 1913–1946: The Political Economy of Decline (1987), p. 328. The Supple volume provides an excellent account of the extent and consequences of conventional unemployment in the British coalfields between the wars.

7 Williams, J. E., The Derbyshire Miners. A Study in Industrial and Social History (1962), p. 752Google Scholar; Branson, Noreen and Heinemann, Margot, Britain in the 1930s (1971), p. 100Google Scholar.

8 Statistical tables in Supple, The History of British Coal Industry, pp. 21, 180–199, 318, 446–447, 450–451 and Turner, Paul, “Wage Determination in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield 1919–1938,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Sheffield (1985), pp. 16, 328Google Scholar.

9 Short-time working was endemic in all the so-called inland coalfields to a greater or lesser extent. In 1933, for instance, the average weekly number of days on which mines wound coal was less than four in Yorkshire, Cannock Chase and the Forest of Dean, in addition, of course, to the four East Midland counties cited in Table 1 (Secretary of the Mines Department of the Board of Trade, Annual Report, 1933).

10 Griffin, A. R., Mining in the East Midlands 1550–1947 (1971), p. 269Google Scholar.

11 See, for instance, Griffin, C. P., The Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Miners Vol. 1 1840–1914 (1983), pp. 63–3Google Scholar; Church, Roy et al. , The History of the British Coal Industry, Vol. 3: 1830–1913 (1986), pp. 50–62Google Scholar.

12 Leicestershire C.R.O., Leicestershire Colliery Owners” Association Minute Records, 19d 55/1, “Minute Book Mining 27,” June 1922.

13 British Coal Archive, South Derbyshire District Colliery Owners Association and South Derbyshire Amalgamate Miners' Association, “Minutes of Joint Meeting,” 23 May 1935. See also Supple, The History of British Coal Industry, pp. 185–187.

14 The, most thorough recent discussion of the attempts to rationalise the industry and mitigate competition is to be found in Kirby, M. W., The British Coalmining Industry 1870–1946: A Political and Economic History (1977)Google Scholar, particularly chapters 6 to 9.

15 Spencer, G. A., “Problems of the Coal Industry,” Service in Life and Work, 5, 17 (Spring 1936), p. 24Google Scholar.

16 Supple, pp. 298–300; Williams The Derbyshire Mines, pp. 560–563.

17 See, for instance, A. R. Griffin, East Midlands, p. 270.

18 C. P. Griffin, Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Miners, p. 62 and Turner, Wage Determination, p. 279

19 Spencer, “Problems,” pp. 24–25.

20 Interview with John Turner, the managing director of the Moira Colliery Co. (South Derbyshire) during the inter-war period, September 1980.

21 Benjamin and Kochan, “Searching,” pp. 447–448 and 474.

22 This is the terminology employed by Whiteside and Gillespie in their highly effective, general refutation of the Benjamin and Kochan thesis. Whiteside, Noel and Gillespie, James A., “Deconstructing Unemployment: Developments in Britain in the Interwar Years,” Economic History Review, 44, 4 (11 1991), p. 681CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Interview with Frank Smith, Whitwick, Leicestershire, September 1981.

24 Hansard, Vol. 169, 14 February 1924.

25 Miners' Federation of Great Britain MB 15 July 1935. The “genuine seeking work” clause of the unemployment benefit regulations prevented the miners from becoming voluntarily unemployed. Benefit would have been refused at the labour exchange.

26 South Derbyshire Amalgamated Miners' Association (SDAMA), “Minutes of the Deputation to the Mines Department on the Railway Wagon Shortage Question,” 25 November 1937.

27 Colliery Guardian, 1 January 1937.

28 Coalville Times, 1 February 1929.

29 Ibid., 11 December 1925. Albert Martin (interview, Mapperley, Derbyshire, March 1981) recalled that the majority of miners working at Shipley and Mapperley collieries seldom earned more than 30s. a week for months on end during the early 1930s. See also the extensive reports in the Coalville Times of 29 May 1925, 30 April 1926 and 9 September 1929.

30 Noel, Gerald, The Great Lockout of 1926 (1976), p. 206Google Scholar.

31 Coalville Times, 11 December 1925. Members of the Leicestershire Miners' Association (LMA) were complaining that they were working for 3.5 days a week for 30s. or less whilst a fully unemployed member of the union was receiving £1 for himself and his wife and 2s. each child from union funds plus 18s. for himself, 5s. for his wife and 2s. each child from national unemployment benefit or typically “£1 a week more than many men that were at work”. Union benefit ran out after twenty-six weeks and was only paid for involuntary unemployment.

32 Compare the information on average annual earnings in Table 4 and annual income from unemployment benefit in Table 5.

33 Interview with John Turner in September 1980; Waller, R. J., The Dukeries Transformed. The Social and Political Development of a Twentieth-Century Coalfield (1983), pp. 37–43Google Scholar. Spencer ”Problems,” p. 24.

34 See note 59 for a case of the consequences of refusing work.

35 Supple, The History of British Coal Industry p. 467.

36 SDAMA Wagon Shortage Deputation (see note 26 above).

37 Glynn and Shaw, “Wage Bargaining,” pp. 123–124.

38 Ibid.

39 The point was forcibly made by the M.F.G.B. officials attending the so-called Buckmaster Inquiry in 1924 (Ministry of Labour, Court of Inquiry, re the Wages Position in the Coalmining Industry, April 1924).

40 Whiteside, Noel, “Social Welfare and Industrial Relations 1914–1939” in Wrigley, Chris, ed., A History of British Industrial Relations, Vol. 2: 1914–1939 (1987), p. 215Google Scholar.

41 Whiteside, Noel, “Welfare Insurance and Casual Labour: A Study of Administrative Inter-vention in Industrial Employment 1906–26,” Economic History Review, 32 4 (11 1979), p. 521Google Scholar. It should be explained that unemployment benefits were payable for periods of unemployment as short as one day, provided that a waiting period subsequent to the official start date of the period of unemployment had been taken. From June 1921 to March 1937 the waiting period was six working days, though the regulations incorporated the socalled “continuity” rule under which any three days of unemployment during any six consecutive working days were considered a period of “continuous” rule under which any three days of unemployment during any six consecutive working days were considered a period of “continuous” unemployment. It was this regulation that the unions sought to use to benefit their members through negotiating a so-called OXO arrangement, that is, alternating days of work (O) with days of unemployment (X), most commonly three days of each per week. There is a more detailed account of unemployment benefit regulations in, for instance, Benjamin and Kochan, “Searching,” pp. 447–448.

42 Whiteside and Gillespie, “Deconstructing Unemployment,” p. 679.

43 LMA MB, 16 June 1922.

44 Ibid., 24 March and 3 June 1932. LMA were still complaining in 1936 that broken shifts were leaving members financially worse off than if they had been fully unemployed and in receipt of only national insurance benefit (Coalville Times, 28 February 1936).

45 Nottinghamshire Area Wage Board MB, 30 December 1931.

46 The Sphere, 23 April 1932. A feature by Charles Graves on Ollerton Model Village.

47 SDAMA MB, 29 October 1929.

48 Ibid., 30 October 1933. Despite the arrangement, though, Graville colliery, for instance, worked for only thirteen days in October 1937, eight of them on short time, SDAMA Wagon Shortage Deputation (see note 26 above).

49 Williams, The Derbyshire Miners, p. 735.

50 SDAMA MB, 23 May 1935.

51 Griffin, C. P., ed., “The Nottinghamshire Miners' Industrial Union ‘Speneer Union’: Ruf-ford Branch Minutes, 1926–1936. District Minutes 1926 to 1927,” Thoroton Society Record Series, Vol. 38 (1990)Google Scholar, Rufford MB, 8 July and 30 October 1931. At neighbouring Ollerton colliery adult miners were earning between 10s. and 25s. a shift in April 1932, and working three shifts and drawing three days' unemployment benefit (The Sphere, 23 April 1932). At Bretby colliery (South Derbyshire) average earnings per shift on the coalface were 10s. 6d. and the miners were working for three shifts and drawing three days' benefit (SDAMA Report on Wages at Conveyer Faces at Bretby colliery December 1933). For the lower paid in particular unemployment benefit on this scale amounted to a substantial wage subsidy that would in Whiteside and Gillespie's phraseology “have made Edwin Chadwick spin in his grave,” “Deconstructing Unemployment,” p. 676.

52 SDAMA Report on the wagon shortage at the Moira collieries, December 1934.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 SDCOA MB 34 May 1935.

57 SDAMA Deputation to the Mines Department. The deputation pointed out that the wages of the lower paid men underground and on the surface were 8s. 8d. and 7s. lOd. a shift and that after the deduction of stoppages they were drawing 19s. 6d. and 17s. 4d. respectively for a week of 2.5 shifts spread over five days” employment. Table 7 emphasises the scale of the problem in October-November 1937.

58 SDCOA MB, 4 February 1938.

59 Nottinghamshire Miners' Association (NMA) MB, Annual Report 1939. Moreover, SDMA took 21 cases before the court of referees in a single month of 1930 and NMA 253 during the whole of 1933, for instance (SDMA MB, 28 May 1930 and NMA MB Annual Report 1933). A typical case is that of three miners who worked at Bagworth colliery, Leicestershire, who “were disallowed the one day that the pit was turning because the management told the men in question that the pit would be open and there would be a few tubs for them to fill if they went to work”. The men had refused to work “for the two hours or so” of work that was offered by management (LMA MB, 5 December 1924). A miner was deemed to be working once he had passed through the lamp cabin and occasionally they were sent home again without going down the shaft.

60 Griffin, C. P., ed., NMU Rufford Minutes, 25 05 1930Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., 15 June 1930. The Rufford branch committee also proposed that all the lodges at the Bolsover Colliery Company collieries should approach management en masse if management failed to stop whittling away at their “holidays and the Dole” arrangements, ibid., 24 July 1932.

62 SDAMA MB, 27 November 1933.

63 Griffin, C. P., The Leicestershire Miners Vol. 2: 1914–1945 (1988), pp. 108, 211Google Scholar.

64 For examples of the financial difficulties faced by the district unions, see , A. R. and Griffin, C. P., “The Non-Political Trade Union Movement” in Briggs, A. and Saville, J., eds., Essays in Labour History 1918–1939 (1977), p. 157Google Scholar; Williams, The Derbyshire Miners, pp. 588–593; Griffin, C. P., “The Leicestershire Miners and the Mining Dispute of 1926” International Review of Social History, 22, 3 (1977), p. 311CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 LMA MB, 22 April 1932 and 8 March 1935; NMA MB 5 February and 28 November 1921.

66 SDAMA, 12 December 1930.

67 C. P. Griffin, ed., NMIU District Minutes, 7 May 1927.

68 Ibid., 28 May 1927.

69 Garside, W. R., The Durham Miners 1919–1960 (1971)Google Scholar, chapter 7; Francis, Hywel and Smith, David, The Fed. A History of the South Wales Miners in the Twentieth Century (1980), chapter 1Google Scholar.

70 Garside, The Durham Miners, p. 267; Branson and Heinemann, Britain in the 1930s, pp. 100, 106, 139 and 146 who talk about the “prosperous Nottinghamshire miner” earning as much as £3 19s. 6d. a week in 1938 which made them amongst the highest paid manual workers in the country. Supple, The History of British Coal Industry, p. 445 refers to their “fairly good wages” on the basis of average earnings per shift. A good example of the 1980s writings is Crick, Michael, Scargill and the Miners (1985)Google Scholar, particularly chapter 8.

71 Whiteside and Gillespie, “Deconstructing Unemployment,” p. 681.

72 Between 1927 and 1938 average earnings per year were below the national average in seven of them (Annual Reports, Secretary of the Mines Department of the Board of Trade 1927–1938). On national earnings, see Stevenson, John, British Society 1914–1945 (1984), pp. 119–123Google Scholar.

73 Whiteside and Gillespie “Deconstructing Unemployment,” p. 687.