ITALIAN MINERS FOR BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27750, 30 August 1955, Page 11

ITALIAN MINERS FOR BRITAIN

Opponents Of Plan

Criticised (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 29. Mr Sam Watson, the leader of Durham’s 100,000 miners and a prominent Labour Party spokesman, has issued a statement strongly supporting the introduction of foreign labour into the coal-mining industry. West Midland, Derbyshire, South Scotland and Yorkshire miners have already unanimously opposed a suggestion that Italian miners should be imported. Mr Watson said that the employment of foreign labour would in no way prejudice either the standards of British miners or the claims for an improvement in conditions.

On the contrary ii appears to Durham miners that the higher their production the better would be their chances for a further improvement in standards. The less coal produced, the poorer their chances of improvement. “It is our opinion that certain political forces do not want to see any improvement in the labour position in Italy. Unemployment and poverty are no breeding grounds for free democracy and the more there are, the more some like it. “ ‘All men are brothers’ sounds pretty hollow on the lips of those who would add ‘except Italians in the mining industry.’ “What on earth would an injured miner say if a foreign doctor, nurse or specialist refused to care for him in hospital? “Yet such an attitude would be understandable in the light of the policy of some persons employed in the pits, who refuse work with foreign labour.

“We are not prepared to support a policy which contradicts every decent standard of international fellowship.”