Miners Association Official
In 1872 he became the first checkweighman elected by the miners of Good Hope Pit, Normanton Common. From this time onwards he was drawn more and more into trade union work. In 1876 he was elected assistant secretary of the West Yorkshire Miners Association. Held this office until 1881 when the West and South Yorkshire Miners Associations were amalgamated to form the Yorkshire Miners Association of which Parrott was appointed agent, a post he held for 20 years. During this time he attended the first ever international conference of coal miners, held in Brussels. He became general-secretary of the Yorkshire Miners Association in 1904. Parrott was one of four men who were credited with the establishment of the Yorkshire Miners Association as it existed at the time of his death, the others being Ben Pickard, (Lib-Lab member of Parliament for Normanton from 1885–1904), J Frith and E Cowey.
In January 1894 Parrott was appointed a representative of the Yorkshire Miners at a conciliation board meeting held at Westminster Palace Hotel to settle a dispute over miners’ wages following a report by a committee headed by Lord Rosebery. Parrott remained a member of the miners’ side of the conciliation board until the time of his death. Despite the work of the board, by 1896, Parrott was warning that miners had given their representatives authority to arrange strikes if the latest round of wage increases were not met and if mines were closed and men thrown out of work. He addressed a meeting of miners saying that Yorkshire was fully prepared to meet the emergency, that the men were well-organised and had both the funds and courage necessary. They were as determined as ever to fight for the maintenance and principle of the living wage.
His work for the Miners Association took him into the wider trade union world and in 1899 he was elected auditor to the Standing Orders Committee of the TUC.
Read more about this topic: William Parrott
Famous quotes containing the words miners, association and/or official:
“The miners lost because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“... a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself cannot stand upon it.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“Our medieval historians who prefer to rely as much as possible on official documents because the chronicles are unreliable, fall thereby into an occasionally dangerous error. The documents tell us little about the difference in tone which separates us from those times; they let us forget the fervent pathos of medieval life.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)