BRITISH RAILWAYS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 221, 16 August 1928, Page 4

BRITISH RAILWAYS.

RECENT CUT IN WAGES

ANNUAL SAVING £3,000,000

LONDON, August, 1

A total of £3,000,0C0 a year is tlie voluntary contribution of the railwaymen toward saving the British railways by accepting (id in the £1 cut in wages. This is the estimate of Mr J. H. Thomas, M.P., general secretary of the National Union of Railwayman. On all sides it is agreed that V is a momentous triumph of co-operation over conflict, ensuring more employment instead of the enforced dismissal of thousands of men, particularly in the railway workshops. Since January the gross revenue oi the Midland group of railway companies lias declined £2,100,000, that of the North-Eastern Company by £l- - the Great Western Company by £869.000. and the Southern'Company by £280,000. The companies attribute this loss of traffic to depression in the coal and steel industries, and also to com pot it. ion from cheaper passenger transport on the roads. The beads of the four main railwaygroups pay warm tribute to the men’s courage and statesmanlike attitude, which, according to Sir Felix Pole, general manager of the Great Western Railway, domonstates the true spirit of 00-operation that now exists between master and workman in Britain.

Mr Thomas says that the agreement will probably live ns the most important that has been signed in British industrial history. “Our men,” he said, “have set an example to the world which, I hope, will be repeated.”