A GREAT STRIKE ENDED.

Evening Star, Issue 13099, 4 November 1908, Page 8

A GREAT STRIKE ENDED.

1 he outbreak of industrial strife in t e cotton manufacturing world of (treat I’ril.iin synchronised "with the declaration of peace between employers and empioved i m the shipbuilding trade of the' North-east | coast of Fiigl-md. By a sufficient, if email, j majority the engineers decided to accept | the provisional terms suggested by the Board of trade, the essential feature of the settlement being a reduction of Is a week in wages. With tl e resumption of j ■aork by (he engineers the heavy cloud of j depre eion that has hung for months over the North-ea.st coast lias been lifted. Tho shipbuilding yards on-the Tyne, the Tees, i and in the Hartlepools have been idle ever since Apiil, and fully 30.000 men were without work in consequence. The five months stoppage had a dinast rous eifect, especially on the laborers, who were no parties to the strike, and who had no wealthy trade unions to whic.li to look lor strike juiy. All that the strike meant in human suffering and in loss ot trade is not easily to be computed, fake most industrial conflict*!, this one ought never to have arisen. In the early part of the jnerent year the shipbuilding trade suffered a veiy severe check, and cmjiloycrn felt compelled to ask for a reduction of wage*-. The boilermakers and several other societies concerned accepted the reduction ; but the i shipwrights an<l the wood workers not onlv j refused to work at reduced wages suggested j hy the employers, but even declined to I give the [executive of their union power to negotiate a settlement on the best posi Bible terms. The engineers adopted an equally uncompromising attitude, with the ; result aheady indicated! I 'trade unionism is undoubtedly a splcui did thing, and has proved of great service j 10 the working clasps in obtaining better i ' wages and more humane conditions of ; hubor. lint on the North-east coast of ; Kngland trades unionism has been worked ! in a very narrow spirit, small (societies , neutralising by their extreme views the. jvaceful councils of the more important unions. For years past employers in the ; shipbuilding trade have been teuibly ham- ; perod in the conduct of their business bv ; etctional and intenmion t-quabhlcs. It | is not to very long ago that the boileri makers and engineers "practically brought ] work to a stand still on the Tyne and Tees j j by quamiling between themselves as to I which trade ought to have the fixing of I ; pi|K'.s of a certain size on steamers. Tho ’ : employers, of course, did not care Which ' eide lixed the pipes, nor did the other workers engaged m the L-iiiplniihling industry ; hut they had all to -tand the racket of the stoppage of woik brought about hy the quarrel. Sectional and interunion troubles have j been for years the cause of all the trouble i in the trade, and Sir Christopher Furness, j or| e °f the largest employers on the Northj cast coast, is now seeking to devise, in i concert with the unions interested, some j moans whereby they may be avoided. In j a letter addressed to the leaders of the union inviting them to a conference, lio t avs : It is plain that if the industries arc to be continued and to prosper, some guarantee mu-1 he forthcoming for smoother and more continuous production ; in brief, that the sectional disputes which have become so rampant meat he got rid of, and in such a way that those engaged in the yards shall have the consciousness within"themselves that it in to them own interest to work with their employers rather than to be continuously thrusting at them. The cable has advised that Sir C. lumeree proposal lias taken the foim of a suggested co-operative partnership that (ffiiiil bo given a year’s trial, hut the union loaders have received it with mixed feeling>. Some of the leaders, however, think that it should be given a trial, anvthing i ! being preferable to existing conditions I j tinder which interuuion strife, culminatino in a strike, may bring about the partial paralysis of a great national industiy.