Foreign Labour

Correspondence, reports, cuttings relating to the employment of European Voluntary Workers (E.V.W.s) in cotton mills. In the post-war period, labour shortages in the textile industry led to recruitment of displaced workers from central and eastern Europe (including Italians, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Poles, Germans). The cotton unions supported the plans in principle, although they successfully negotiated that EVWs constitute no more than 10% of the workforce in any mill, and would be the first to be dismissed in a recession. The file also includes material relating to the employment of Hungarian refugees in 1956.