But the hard-headed employers refused to give up so easily. They awaited a favorable opportunity to destroy the miners' new-found unity, which was bound to come when the Government gave up control of the mines and turned them back to private management. This process of decontrol had been set by an Act of Parliament to take place on August 31, 1921, and the workers and employers, anticipating the event, were already (by February, 1921) in conference negotiating about the new conditions to prevail in the industry. The employers demanded heavy reductions in wages and the reestablishment of the district system of collective bargaining, whilst the workers resisted the wage cuts and insisted upon the creation of a national wages board and a national profits pool.[1]
Suddenly, in the midst of these negotiations (at the beginning of March), the Government threw the whole situation into a turmoil by announcing that the decontrol of the mines would go into effect March 31st, exactly five months earlier than the time set for it by law. The reason alleged was that the Government could no longer afford to pay the heavy subsidies required to keep wages, prices, and profits at prevailing levels; but the truth was that the move was carried out in concert with the other plans of the mine owners to deal a crippling blow at the Miners' Federation.
Immediately the Government made its announcement about the decontrol, a critical situation arose. The employ-
- ↑ The miners conceived the industry altogether in a national sense. They wanted the wages of the workers, the price of coal, and the profits of the owners to be definitely established upon a national scale. The situation was to be so regulated that the poorer coal fields which could not meet the regular standards of wages, prices, and profits should be automatically subsidized by the richer ones. The owners contested every phase of this scheme. Their program was to reduce the industry to the old chaotic system of each district and mine for itself in every respect.
ration is to have the Government own the coal industry and then operate it by a sort of guild, one-half of whose officials should be appointed by the unions, and the other half to consist of technicians and Government representatives. For full particulars of their program see Frank Hodges' booklet, "Workers' Control in the Coal Mining Industry."
