114:, known as No. 2 Face, in November 1941. It proved difficult to achieve the mine manager's output quota of 4 long tons (4.1 t) per day from the new coalface. The management claimed this was because the miners were deliberately working slowly but the miners claimed it was because of difficult working conditions. The coal seam at No. 2 Face was unusually variable and working conditions there changed on a weekly basis. The miners claimed that at times the seam was as little as 2 feet (0.61 m) high, requiring the men to work on their knees in a confined space. There were also complaints about air quality and faulty equipment, which the miners claimed cost an hour each shift to repair. The miners alleged that the management had started work on the difficult No.2 Face to allow the more productive and easier to work Eastern Face to be closed off. This was allegedly to save the Eastern Face for exploitation after the war, when government subsidies would be withdrawn.
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183:. The civil prosecution proceeded first and the prosecution set out its case focusing on the alleged unpatriotic conduct of the miners. The prosecution then withdrew the charges, which prevented the defendants from responding to the allegations. The criminal case focused on the legal question of whether the miners had given the required 21 days' notice to the ministry for arbitration and not on the rights and wrongs of the pay dispute. The defendants were found guilty. One official was sentenced to two months' imprisonment with
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36:, No. 2. This face was much narrower and harder to work than the previous face and outputs were reduced. The miners proved unable to meet management production quotas and the mine owners refused to pay the previously agreed minimum daily wage, alleging deliberate slow working. An arbitrator called in to review the dispute ruled that the quotas were achievable. The miners disagreed and went on strike from 9 January.
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a cold winter without coal, usually obtained at a subsidy from the mine, and some had resorted to furniture and floor boards. However, the trial and sentences passed seem to have hardened their position; a vote among the men on 26 January confirmed that the strike would proceed into a third week. Other pits in the region held one-day strikes in sympathy with the
Betteshanger workers.
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to decide on the matter. Doughty was a veteran arbitrator and solicitor with experience in coal mining, though only in the north-west of
England. Doughty ruled, on 19 December, that the 4-ton target for No.2 Face was achievable and that the rate per ton paid by the mine was generous. He did recommend
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The
Ministry of Labour and the Home Office received a record number of letters in support of the strikers and stating that the sentences imposed by the court were excessive. Before the trial some miners had considered abandoning the strike and returning to work. Their families were suffering through
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The three officials were the last men to be sentenced to imprisonment under Order 1305 during the war; others would spend time in prison for these offences but only as a result of non-payment of fines. The
Betteshanger strike was the most publicised strike of the war and the only one to affect coal
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The colliery management implemented the wage reductions on 8 January and, after discovering this, the miners commenced strike action the following morning. Bornstein (1986) records that 1,600 miners went on strike while Mak (2015) states there were 2,000, and this did not include the workers on the
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for settlement. Prosecutions were made against the strikers; three union officials were imprisoned and 1,085 men fined. The prosecutions hardened the strikers' attitudes and after the strike entered its third week the government began negotiations. A settlement was reached to reinstate the minimum
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cited Order 1305 and the
Betteshanger strike as an example of the ineffectiveness of outlawing strikes. However Bogg et al (2020) note that, as the economic conditions experienced during the Order 1305 era meant that strikes were more powerful during this time than previously, it is possible that
95:, employing thousands of miners working a seam some 1,500 feet (460 m) below ground level. The mine had a reputation for militancy as many of the miners who took up jobs there after its opening in 1927 had been blacklisted from mines in other parts of the country for their actions during the
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advised against this. One legal issue was that Order 1305 had been drafted in haste and was vaguely worded. There was concern that some miners may not have been aware that it was illegal to strike and the
Department of Mines sent officers to explain this to the miners. The strike continued and a
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and the other two received one-month sentences. The 35 miners working on No. 2 Face received £3 fines and 1,050 other striking miners were fined £1. The fines, if not paid, would result in imprisonment with hard labour. One of the union officials imprisoned, Tudor Davies, was well known in the
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and the three imprisoned officials were held at
Maidstone Prison and a settlement reached on 28 January. The mine owners agreed to pay a minimum wage provided the miners agreed to submit to judgement by an adjudicator in cases when the management considered work was intentionally slowed. The
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mines during the Second World War. The government deliberately limited production quotas after works resumed at
Betteshanger, restricting the productivity of the mine. The mine maintained its militant tradition and was the last in the country to return to work after the
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The terms agreed were an almost complete acceptance of the miners' original demands. Grenfell petitioned the Home Office to free the three officials; on 2 February, after 11 days in prison with hard labour (sewing mail bags), the men received a pardon from
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and were released. Of those sentenced for participating in the strike only nine paid the fines. Struggling to find prison places for the remainder, and fearing a resumption of the strike, the government remitted the fines in July 1943. A contemporary
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trial was held at
Canterbury on 23 January. The miners held a procession to the court accompanied by bands and crowds of women and children. The miners particularly feared a prison sentence which would prevent them from finding work at other mines.
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The mine managers refused to accept the arguments put forward by the miners and took action; instead of paying the minimum wage, which had been set by agreements dating to 1933, the management stated they would only pay a
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failed to refer a labour dispute for settlement by a
National Arbitration Tribunal within 21 days. The order had the support of the ministry's National Joint Consultative Committee which included representation from the
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Order 1305 was not repealed until 1951. Though intended to limit the number of strikes, the frequency during its period of operation (1940–51) was actually greater than in the period 1931–39. Because of this the 1968
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without the order there would have been more strikes. In all, some 109 prosecutions against 6,000 workers were brought during the Second World War, though many were dropped entirely or the defendants merely
160:. The miners disputed the press claims and noted that they had continued to work the mine during air raids, including one that hit the colliery buildings, and that 250 miners had joined the
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surface who were prevented from working due to the cessation of the coal supply. The strike attracted some attention, strikers were interviewed by the social research organisation
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The government were keen to end the strike over fears it could spread to other mines and threaten production at a key point of the war. Negotiations between secretary for Mines
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rate for the coal actually produced. The miners' union disputed this but failed to make progress and the union branch president and secretary both resigned over the matter. The
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wage and for the men to return to work on 29 January. The imprisoned men received a royal pardon on 2 February and the fines were remitted in July 1943.
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that an additional bonus of 1 shilling 1 penny (£0.05) be paid for coal produced from No. 2 Face in recognition of the difficult working conditions.
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officials agreed to this and a subsequent vote by the miners also approved the terms, with the men returning to work the following day.
156:, and there was much press coverage, most of which was unfavourable and described the miners as unpatriotic for striking during a time of
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Under wartime regulations, Order 1305, striking was illegal unless the matter had been referred to the
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68:, commonly referred to as Order 1305. This made it an offence for workers to go on strike unless the
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article claimed the strike cost the war effort 9,000 long tons (9,100 t) of coal production.
384:"Spheres of Justice in the 1942 Betteshanger Miners' Strike: An Essay in Historical Ethnography"
99:. The miners had held a strike in 1938 over the treatment of young employees at the colliery.
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The War and the International: A History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain, 1937-1949
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colliery in Kent, England. The strike had its origins in a switch to a new
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Bogg, Alan; Collins, Jennifer; Freedland, Mark; Herring, Jonathan (2020).
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Blood, Sweat, and Toil: Remaking the British Working Class, 1939–1945
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The site of Betteshanger Colliery in 2008, now part of a country park
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Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations
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Conditions of Employment and National Arbitration Order 1940
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and continued to report for duty throughout the strike.
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A miner working in a narrow coal seam, Britain 1942
60:In order to maintain production outputs during the
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497:. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 116.
20:A statue of a miner at the now-closed coal mine
543:Miners' labour disputes in the United Kingdom
130:agreed to arbitrate in the dispute and sent
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503:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604111.001.0001
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