Bargaining with Miners
The discussions on the coal miners' claim for a wage increase are progressing towards a possible bargain. The decisions at the National Union of Mineworkers conference on Tuesday to bring the question of Saturday working into the argument and to keep the Government out of it were both healthy signs of a return to the hard but clear technique of collective bargaining between unions and employers. Now that the Coal Board has taken the essential first step of saying no to a wage demand, instead of giving in after a mere token show of resistance, the process of bargaining is acquiring an air of reality which has been regrettably absent for many years. It was always un- realistic for the union to pretend that the question of Saturday working had nothing to do with the case. Now that it has admitted, to all intents and purposes, that the Coal Board has a right to ask for Saturday working in return for a wage increase, the possibility that some increase may be agreed upon has come sensibly nearer. The Board has never argued—and no sensible employer could argue—that all wage increases are out' of the question. Whit it has argued is that if.wages are to be increased output and efficiency must also be increased. This means not only that Saturday working must be continued, but also that the recent disturbing fall in output per man-shift must be reversed. This too the miners have, in effect, accepted, by agreeing to discuss with the Board measures to improve co- operation and efficiency. The further decision of the delegates at Tuesday's meeting to reject their executive's proposal that the whole dispute should now be presented to the Government is a really heartening sign of the miner's self-reliance and his sound belief that it is better to settle disputes on the spot than to take them to Downing Street. The decks have now been cleared and it is possible to get down to the exact figure of a possible wage-increase and the exact extent of the rise in production which is necessary if any increase at all is to be granted. This is real collective bargaining, and it is a welcome change from the wishy-washy pseudo-political substitutes for it that have held the field for so long.
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