Aberdare strike 1857–1858

During the dispute a trade union appeared amongst the miners of the Aberdare Valley but the men were ultimately forced to return to work on the terms set by the owners.

[1] In general, however, the dispute was a peaceful one and was characterised by the emergence of a trade union movement, and the Merthyr Telegraph, in particular, was critical of other newspapers in Cardiff and Swanase which it accused of wildly exaggerating the extent of disorder at Aberdare.

[4] Henry Austin Bruce, MP for the Merthyr Boroughs, was the employers' main spokesman during the dispute, and addressed meetings at Mountain Ash and Aberdare to present the masters' case to large crowds of workmen.

In his speech, Bruce recognised that his family had extensive interests in the coal industry but he also claimed that he wished to play a conciliating role in terminating the strike.

In the course of a lengthy speech, Bruce argued that the owners were acting reasonably in reducing wages in view of the general economic climate and the condition of both the coal and iron trades in the district.

[citation needed] While his first speech was relatively conciliatory, Bruce then launched into an attack on the miners' claims and compared their demands with the income that farm labourers in Carmarthenshire and Glamorgan could expect.

[1] It was estimated that, by the time of this meeting, around 6,500 miners were on strike and press reports refer both to the peaceful nature of the dispute and the strangely quiet atmosphere in the normally bustling Aberdare Valley.

Furnaces that had remained lit uninterrupted for twenty years were extinguished and, at night, the main source of light was the illumination caused by the ironworks at Merthyr in the neighbouring valley.

One of their number, Lewis Morgan, claimed that the miners' were being misled in relation to price of coal at Cardiff and that the proposed reductions in wages were well in excess of what the condition of trade could justify.

Coal trimmers from Cardiff were said to be engaged at mountain Ash while thirty colliers from Pembrokeshire were reported to be at Cwmpennar, although they appeared to have refused to work after realising the circumstances.