During my working years in England from the late 1950s to the late 1960s I met a few of those old timers some who had been away from Ireland 50 or more years.
The real `pinchers` were mostly from the west of Ireland, they were clannish and moved in packs from job to job.
The Labour Weekly was their paper for finding the best paying jobs, hard work was secondary as long as the wages were good that is all that mattered.
The `Culchies` mostly `Pinchers` and referred to as ¬Long distant boys`[derived from Kiltimagh in County Mayo] were looked down upon by lots of other Irish men the Dublin men picked many a row with them.
The `Spike` was, from memory a lodging house in London, Donall MacAmhlaigh`s book An Irish Navvy republished in 2003 by Collins is a must read for anyone interested in this subject, also Patrick McGill`s Children of the dead end.