Enoch Wood Scrapbook 1831
Date:27 May 1831
Description: So-called 'blackleg' labour has been a controversial feature of industrial tension for generations.
Traitors
When North Staffordshire's miners formed a trade union in the early 1830s, their masters responded by taking on non-union workers (or 'blacklegs') who not try to seek improved would pay and conditions.
The miners of the new union regarded these men as traitors, and wrote of them in crushing terms, referring to the story of Jesus' betrayal by Judas in the Bible:
...as the Chief Priests and Scribes sought means to destroy Jesus, so our Masters and Agents are seeking traitors, and to our great astonishment and to their disgrace, they have found Judas's
Blackleg workers have often been treated violently, even in modern times.
However, this notice calls on miners to remain calm and disciplined:
...be Peaceable, be firm, and be united, though Judas betrayed his Master and his Brethren, yet the Eleven stood fast... and came of more than conquerors.
The anonymous notice is signed by 'a coal miner.'
This item is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.
Date:3 May 1831
Description: In this notice, 32 North Staffordshire mine owners outline their unity with regard to two pressing issues.
Wages
At this time, miners were attempting to secure an increase in their wages by forming a trade union.
The masters firmly state that no increases can be made 'under existing circumstances.'
Trade union
Although the masters pledge justice to their workmen, they are also united in refusing to employ any miner who has been sacked by another employer for being a union member.
This item is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.
Date:5 May 1831
Description: Colliery owners did not take kindly to miners' early attempts to form trades unions.
Market forces
most believed in an 'iron law of wages,' which dictated that wages would be related to market forces.
This meant that if prices had to be low in order to sell coal, then wages would have to remain low as well.
Interference
Colliery owners believed that trade union campaigns interfered with market forces - not to mention their profits - and so was invariably hostile.
This notice, issued by Mr. Kinnersly of Clough Hall Colliery, Kidsgrove, informs workers that they must sign a declaration to confirm that they have left the union if they wish to keep their jobs.
This item is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.
Date:17 May 1831
Description: In 1831, a new Coal Miners' Union Society published a set of rules and orders.
Both the union and its rules caused an uncomfortable stir amongst local coal masters.
This notice was published by coal masters in response to the tensions.
Subversive
The masters believe that the miners' rules are "subversive to the just rights of their employers."
They reaffirm that they will not employ anyone connected with the union.
The truck system
The masters believe that there is only one justification for the miners' discontent - that, in a few collieries, wages are paid in goods instead of cash.
This method of payment was known as the 'truck system.'
In fact the level of wages, say the masters, guarantees that:
No collier ... has been without the means of earning a decent and comfortable subsistence for himself and his family.
As a result, the masters' only recommendation is to abolish the truck system, and certainly not to increase wages.
This item is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.
Date:9 May 1831
Description: When trade unionists protested about wages or welfare, their employers rarely agreed whole-heartedly.
In the Spring of 1831, a notice had appeared in which North Staffordshire miners campaigned for their right to join a trade union and receive a fair wage for their work.
One coal master, Hugh Henshall Williamson of Pinnox Colliery at Greenway Bank, here puts forward his side of the story.
"Injustice and inhumanity..."
The miners had accused the coal owners of refusing to pay them a fair wage.
At this time, many businessmen believed in 'the iron law of wages,' a fashionable idea developed by a renowned banker named David Ricardo.
Williamson shared these beliefs, and here argues that wages should be left to 'the natural course of competition.'
In theory this meant that when business and profits were healthy, workers' wages would follow.
In practice, wages rarely rose very much, and businessmen did not share their profits.
In fact, Williamson accuses the miners of promoting injustice by interfering with the natural order.
"Ruin..."
Williamson then attacks the miners' union for threatening the coal industry with ruin by making unreasonable demands.
He dismisses their requests to monitor his own profits and to take control of his mining operations.
Finally he reminds them that his employees have usually earned over 24 shillings per week, and therefore underlines his determination not to meet their demands.
Finally he condemns the union as:
"A society unlawful in its spirit and destructive in its arts."
This item is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.