General Strike 1926
Source 1
Transcript of speech by Ellen Wilkinson MP (Labour), in an address to Parliament on 29th June 1926, speaking against the Coal Mines Bill:
“We are considering the question of an eight-hour day, it is surely not irrelevant to consider the conditions under which the miners work … of men working in Somersetshire mines dragging tubs of coal along narrow roads, which were too narrow for pit ponies to work in, and that tubs were attached to the men by means of ropes passed round their waists and fastened through their legs by means of a chain which is hitched to the tub.
For the information of the House, I have brought with me one of these ropes. I am sorry to intrude into the polite environs of this House a thing of this kind. [The hon. Member produced a rope with chain and attachment ‘guss and crook’]
This was worn, not 60 years ago, as stated by certain coal-owners, but on 30th April of this year. (This) matter came to my knowledge because of a woman who asked whether anything could be done because of the conditions under which their boys have to work … she wept when her boy came home from the pit because of the way the rope rubbed his flesh. Perhaps hon. Members might think of that when they accuse Mr. A J Cook of being an extremist. The Coal Owners’ Association, without denying the facts, are denying the numbers. … When you consider that people are working under these conditions surely, in God’s name, seven hours is enough. You are adding on another hour in order that more profits may be made, because it will not mean more wages.
I was also attacked for the wages that I said were being paid. What I was speaking about was not the minimum wages of the colliery, but the wages that were actually received by the men. … I have, in addition, a letter from Mr. Fred Swift, the … secretary of the Somersetshire Miners’ Association, Dear Miss Wilkinson, The Somerset Colliery owners refuse to carry out the provisions of the 1924 National Wages Agreement, although the Somerset Colliery Owners’ Association is affiliated to the Mining Association of Great Britain. In December of last year, I applied for a subsistence wage, pursuant to Clause 7 of the National Agreement, but the owners not only refused the application, but evaded meeting us to discuss the matter.
Hon. Members see this matter only from the point of view of profit. I am the chairman of the women’s relief committee, which is dealing with the other side of the shield, with the wives and families, with the women who have been living on margarine and bread and tea. … In this staple industry men are working under conditions which are fit only for beasts, conditions which no hon. Member opposite would tolerate for half an hour if it was his children, and all you can say is, let them have longer hours and less wages in order that your profits may be safeguarded. It is abominable, and those who vote for these longer hours ought not to sleep in their beds until they themselves have done what these men are doing every day in their work.”
Source: Hansard—Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1926/jun/29/coal-mines-bill#column_1023