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Trade union activity in the tinplate, nickel and coal industries in the Swansea Valley, c.1870-1926. / Darren Gerard Minister

Swansea University Author: Darren Gerard Minister

Abstract

This is a study of trade unionism in three different industries in the same valley - the Swansea valley, which is situated in south-west Wales on the South Wales Coalfield. Focusing on the period c. 1870-1926, this study looks at the tinplate, nickel and coal industries, and how trade unionism evolv...

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Published: 2009
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Master of Philosophy
Degree name: M.Phil
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42447
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Abstract: This is a study of trade unionism in three different industries in the same valley - the Swansea valley, which is situated in south-west Wales on the South Wales Coalfield. Focusing on the period c. 1870-1926, this study looks at the tinplate, nickel and coal industries, and how trade unionism evolved in each industry during this period. The conditions which influenced trade unionism in each industry are considered as a means of assessing how and why trade unionism developed in the ways that it did. By the mid 1920s, each of the three industries had developed its own distinct form of trade unionism: conciliation in the tinplate industry; industrial cooperation in the nickel industry; and a more confrontational approach in the coal industry. Despite these differences, different levels of cooperation between workers from the three industries did occur. This cooperation is considered within wider contexts, for example: through the Trade and Labour Councils in the valley and during the 1926 General Strike and miners' lock-out. This study gives a geographic, demographic and industrial introduction to the Swansea valley and is divided into three parts. There are three chapters on the tinplate industry; one chapter on the nickel industry; and three chapters on the coal industry, including one chapter on the 1926 General Strike and miners' lock-out. Factors such as social, political, economic, demographic, religious, cultural, linguistic and industrial are considered in explaining the development of trade unionism in each industry in the Swansea valley.
Keywords: Labor economics.;Economic history.;Labor relations.;European history.
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

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