HC Deb 01 April 1941 vol 370 cc848-9
32. Mr. Kennedy

asked the Secretary for Mines whether he can now indicate the result of the meeting in Glasgow, on 19th March, of the coalowners and the National Union of Scottish Mineworkers, for the adoption of a policy of 100 percent. organisation in Scotland?

The Secretary for Mines (Mr. David Grenfell)

After discussing at length with the representatives of the Scottish colliery owners and of the National Union of Scottish Mine Workers the question of 100 percent. unionism in Scottish collieries, I have recommended to the parties the following solution, which they undertook to submit to their constituents:

For the period of hostilities the owners acknowledge the desirability of general membership of responsible trade unions. They will give their sympathetic assistance and use all their influence to secure the individual membership of all men employed in and about the mines. The workmen, on their part, undertake to avoid all stoppages of work at the collieries on the general understanding that the trade unions recognised are the accredited unions in the Scottish coalfields and that no transfers be recognised unless they have been arranged with the consent of the organisations concerned.