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Coping with Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis in Franco Spain, 1944-1975
| Coal mining has traditionally been described worldwide as an extremely hazardous industry. In addition to the risk working environment of the pits, dust related diseases have been a major killer and responsible for high levels of disability in coal industry. Historiography has revealed a complex combination of scientific, technical, socio-political, economic, and cultural factors affecting the identification of occupational risks and the adoption of corrective measures and compensation schemes. In the case of coal dust, the late recognition of coal workers pneumoconiosis as an occupational disease in the 1940s was largely due to silica overshadowing of coal dust hazard. It has also been pointed out how medical and engineering preventive approaches to coal dust problem were mediated by profit-oriented managerial cultures and changing importance of coal for national and international economies.
In the case of Spain, coal mining industry lived a period of expansion in the 1940s and 1950s as its traditional lack of competitiveness with British coal was overcome by autarchic protectionism under Franco regime. That gave room to intensification of workload and to the worsening of coal miners working conditions converting coal workers’ pneumoconiosis into the main industrial disease in Franco Spain. The aim of this paper is to explore the politics of preventive and compensation strategies in the fight against coal dust diseases during the Franco regime. Particular attention will be paid to the changing strategies developed after the nationalisation of the sector in 1967.
It shall be argued that compensation for silicosis sufferers, extended to coal workers in 1944, was part of a strategy of the Fascist regime to eradicate labour tensions, widen social basis of the new regime and to increasing production in key sectors of the national economy, like coal mining. The application of strict criteria for compensation entitlement and the low payments all contributed to minimise the benefits of social insurance despite its propagandistic use. It also shall be argued that apart from the medical monitoring, very little action was taken on dust suppression until early 1960s. The Silicosis Scheme, which covered coal mining, did not include the regulation of safety standards and the Code of Mining Safety Regulations focused on accidents and dust explosions. Furthermore, despite the costs of compensation in this period, employers failed to take voluntary action to address the dust problem. The growing labour unrest and political concerns on rising pneumoconiosis rates in late 1950s led to the updating of the Code of Mining Safety Regulation (1960), which for the first time included regular dust control measurements. After nationalisation, the new public corporation (HUNOSA) focused more on prevention than compensation, developing a more technical approach to dust suppression.
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