Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Cardiff, Penarth and Barry Coaltrimmers' Union . . .

The document ends with Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 being the basis of the agreements of 12th April and 19th May 1923.

The Report of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry (1925) Volume 1 stated: 'The earnings of coal-trimmers for recent years were furnished to the Commission by Mr. Brett on behalf of the Shipping Federation and are printed in Appendix No.30. The average earnings for the first nine months of 1925 for all the Tyne Docks and Staiths were 117s. a week. For the ports of Cardiff, Penarth and Barry the average for the first eleven months of 1925 was 84s. 10d. These amounts, as is pointed out in the chapter on Conveyance, include certain charges not usually reckoned as part of wages. These earnings are considerably higher on the average than those of the highest paid classes of workers in the coal mining industry.'

The United States Department of Commerce published a journal 'Coal in Europe' in June 1927 under the heading 'Shipping at South Wales Ports' which states : 'Several important developments took place in 1926 in connection with facilities at the South Wales ports, the chief of which was the amendment in the working hours of coal tippers and trimmers so as to include a night shift.' [484]

Having personally been involved with engineering and manufacturing industry for the last half century or so, I have never been a fan of the trade union and have avoided membership wherever possible. In my humble opinion, all employers and those associated with trade unions should read the foregoing and use it as the template by which to manage their working arrangements instead of the 'them and us' attitude which has and continues to prevail. My hat goes off to those wonderfully enlightened people of the South Wales Coal exporting industry who represented all sides of a dispute nearly a century ago and set the standard by which all other disputes should be judged!