Personally, I'll stick to the late Ron Angel's word "spitters," mainly on two counts;

1. Ron gave me the words and 2. he wrote the song.

Songs do change and words all the more. I wrote songs almost forty years ago which are sung differently not only by others but even by me. Call it the living tradition if you like, or even call it artistic licence but even the fettlers buggered about with the words of that song now and then.

The use of spitters denotes the dusty working conditions and fits with the rest of the verse, as Ron wrote it. I doubt anyone is precious over the word spinner, but as Joe collects at a library level, my clarification was for his benefit.