EMPLOYMENT (LOCAL RESIDENTS) (Hansard, 13 November 1945)

§ Mr. Daggar (Abertillery)
The painful recollection of what took place in my division between the two wars, what is now happening, and my anxiety for the future of the people I represent are the chief reasons for raising this matter on the Adjournment this evening. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour will appreciate those three reasons when I remind him that in my division, from 1931 to 1938—a period of eight years—4, 648 persons were placed in employment in other districts by the em- 2027 ployment exchanges. In addition, during that period, over 7, 000 of my constituents left the division to take up employment which they secured themselves. In a period of eight years no fewer than 11,713 persons were compelled to migrate to other parts of the country because there was no employment in the place of their birth. What was true of my constituency was also true of the whole of South Wales and Monmouthshire. We lost one-seventh of the population of South Wales and Monmouthshire. Unless something is done now there will be a repetition of that tragedy. In the case of unemployment, men and women who reside in areas where no new industries have come and where there are not sufficient factories to absorb them in employment the slogan "Jobs for all" will become a political lie, unless action is taken at once by the Minister of Labour and the appropriate Departments.
The tragedy to which I refer has already commenced and this is the evidence I propose to submit for consideration by the Ministry of Labour. I have in part of my Division the Newbridge and District Unemployment association and I am informed by the Secretary of that organisation that the men living within the Newbridge area are outside certain defined areas of the following factories. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour will be familiar with these factories and also with the areas in which they are situated. There are the Northern Aluminium Company, Rogerstone, the De Haviland Forge, Rogerstone, the new Nylon factory at Pontypool, and a new factory at Pontlanfraith, Blackwood. All those factories are absolutely accessible to every individual in my constituency. I am informed that in fact there are cases of men being offered jobs at this factory, and then being refused work, owing to the fact that they live in the Newbridge district. I have here a copy of a letter that was sent in reply to an application for employment at what is known as the Northern Aluminium Company which is situated in Rogerstone. It is dated 28th August: "DEAR SIR, Our immediate vacancies are being filled from the labour available near to the works. It may be that at a later date we shall have to go further afield, in which case you would be informed by the Ministry of Labour. 2028 The same company wrote another letter dated 16th of last month: The position up to the moment has been that the Ministry of Labour at Newport and Risca which are nearest to the works have been able to supply our labour requirements, due to considerable redundancy in other works in the district. It may be that later we shall have to go further afield in which case it is highly probable that we should ask Newbridge to submit applicants. The person responsible for soliciting that reply then wrote to the Regional Council at Cardiff, which is the Control Office, and he was informed that it was regretted that the extension of the demands for labour was no necessity for extending the area of recruitment beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the respective factories.
It is not necessary to point out that the problem has arisen largely because of the discharges from the Royal Ordnance factory situated in Glascoed and Pontlanfraith. As a result two distinct issues arise. The first is that persons employed at the Glascoed factory should have, regardless of where they reside, an equal opportunity of sharing the employment available at that factory. In other words, those living outside the area in which the factory is situated, should not be placed at a disadvantage in view of the fact that it is national property. It is a national factory and therefore the employment available should not be confined to the people who happen to be living in the area in which the factory exists. The second point is what are the proposals of the Minister regarding existing unemployment at Newbridge. At present it is in excess of 1, 000, and it is an area where future development will not permit of their absorption into industry. I have already read the reply of the Cardiff Regional Office on these matters. It is identical with the replies I received from the Minister himself on 11th October. When I raised the Question here I was informed by the Minister: The general rule applies here, as in all other areas, that when vacancies are notified suitable applicants for work on the register of the local officer are considered for submission in the first place, but if a vacancy cannot be filled in this way it is circulated over a wider area. I then asked the Minister if he did not consider that men who lived outside that area in which the factory was situated should be at a considerable disadvantage. I was told: 2029 It is an advantage to the person residing in an area to get a job in that area and a disadvantage to the man living miles away to bring him from his home to another job."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 11th October, 1945; Vol. 414, c. 402.] During the period of the war men whom I know have travelled a much greater distance than they would have had to travel in the event of their being employed at either of the factories to which I have referred. I then put another Question and had this reply: There are comprehensive and flexible arrangements for information about the vacancies notified at one exchange which cannot readily be filled to be brought to the notice of other exchanges either locally or over a wider area, including, where appropriate, the country as a whole. What amazes me is this part of the reply: As regards the last part of the Question, the Employment Exchanges have many demands for labour at present which cannot be filled."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 16th October, 1945; Vol. 414, c. 910.]

§ Mr. Daggar
Can I have an undertaking that the retention of the services of the persons at the Glascoed factory will be on the principle of equity between those who reside outside the area in which the factory is situated and those residing within that area. My second question is, What provision is to be made for unemployed persons living in areas where new industries being established will not prove adequate to absorb those unemployed persons, if they have to await, before being employed, the absorption of all the surplus labour in those areas where new industries have been established? It is obvious that in my division there will be a pool of unemployment that will never be drained, and no attempt will be made to drain it unless there is a change in the arrangements that now exist that the men within the area where factories 2030 exist must first of all be absorbed, and if any more are required there may be an opportunity for the men in my division to secure employment. Unless that practice is varied there will be a pool of unemployment in my area, because there will be no factories established to absorb them or drain the pool. In other words in precisely the same manner as between the two wars the men will either have to migrate or be compelled to live on the miserable 24s. a week unemployment insurance benefit. I want some assurance that my men will receive as much consideration as the men in other districts where new factories will be established.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Ness Edwards)
I am sure the House will have every sympathy with the statement made by my hon. Friend the Member for Abertillery (Mr. Daggar). As he has rightly said, Abertillery has had a very sad and bitter experience. One has only to go there to see the devastation that has been caused in that area by unbridled and uncontrolled private exploitation of its resources; and Abertillery and that valley has suffered between the two wars perhaps more than any other part of the country. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Abertillery that as one who was born in the community, I have the deepest sympathy with his point of view. But this problem is one that is not confined to Abertillery. It is spread through all of what we call the development areas today. But tonight I am not asked to reply in this Debate on the general question. In any case I would be the wrong person to reply, as it is not directly the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour.
My hon. Friend has put two questions, and I hope to satisfy him on both. On the question of the redundancy at the Glascoed Factory, he can be assured that up to the present the people who live outside the area and who work at Glascoed is getting equal treatment with those who live within the area of the Glascoed Factory. An analysis of the present employment at Glascoed will show that the Western Valley men and women have not been penalized because they live in the Western Valley, and on that point I do not think after an examination of the facts that there can be any real and substantial complaint.
2031 Now I come to the second point with regard to that factory. At some time there will be fresh recruitment for that factory after its conversion has been completed and when new work has been put in hand. Again, I want to give my hon. Friend this undertaking, that in the recruitment of new labour for the Glascoed Factory the Abertillery Valley will have its fair share. They will not be excluded by the old boundary arrangement that did apply in that area. I am hoping with regard to Glascoed that the apprehensions of my hon. Friend will be completely dissipated by the facts that will arise. I will now pass to the next point with regard to the position of the unemployed who live in the Newbridge area. My hon. Friend has referred to, I think, three letters—two from the Northern Aluminium Company who have a factory at Rogerstone and one from the Regional Controller of the Ministry of Labour at Cardiff.
Those three letters did indicate the state of affairs that existed and that do exist up to now. Men have been prevented from going to those factories because there were unemployed persons who lived nearer to the factories than the men at Newbridge. We have to face this position. The area which my hon. Friend has the honour to represent in this House, because of topographical and geological considerations, will have difficulty in attracting new factories, and it may well be that the new factories and new employment for the community situated in that valley will have to be placed either at the top end of the valley or lower down at the bottom end.
I am afraid that is going to be the only way in which we can provide full employment for the people in that narrow valley. To put it in local terms, in my view, the area at the top end of the valley—Nantyglo and Blaina—and lower down the valley below Newbridge, are the areas with ample sites and with certain geological safeguards—my hon. Friend will know what I mean—which will enable industrial development to take place, and if the present boundary arrangements of the Ministry of Labour apply, the men living in Abertillery will not be entitled to go to those factories until the local employment at Newbridge, Blaina or 2032 Nantyglo has been absorbed. It means that in that small area we will get the complete collapse of a community—one of the best communities in this country. The Ministry of Labour recognise that problem, and instructions will be issued shortly to the exchange managers in that area that the area must be treated as a whole and that these men to whom my hon. Friend has referred in this community in Abertillery and Newbridge shall have the right to be submitted for vacancies which occur either at Roger-stone at the Northern Aluminium Company, or at the de Haviland Company. They will also take part in the recruitment for the Nylon factory at Pontypool and also for the new standard factory at Pontllanfraith. That, in my view, meets my hon. Friend's request in full. Both questions he has put have been answered most completely.
But that does not end the problem, as he will realise. As my hon. Friend probably knows, a new factory is to be built at Blaina at which it is hoped 1, 000 workers will be employed by the Brims-down Rubber Company. Recruitment for that factory will not be limited to Blaina. Abertillery will take its share. At Newbridge two factories are to be erected. It is true that they are not very large. Then again, I should mention the Nylon plant at Pontypool and the Lucas factory at Cwmbran.
Those factories will provide opportunities for the men living in the Western Valley, but—and my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade associates himself with me in saying this—they will not be adequate to provide full employment for the manpower in that valley. Further steps will be necessary. I can assure my hon. Friend that this problem is giving us a headache, but both the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Labour will pay close attention to it with a view to trying to provide in that valley ample opportunities for that community to maintain itself in existence. That is the answer to the case put by my hon. Friend the Member for Abertillery.