ENGINEERS’ STRIKE.

Opunake Times, Volume VI, Issue 248, 22 January 1897, Page 2

ENGINEERS’ STRIKE.

The engineers’ strike in Australia which threatened to cause a considerable amount of temporary inconvenience to commerce has collapsed, and the engineers are seeking reinstatement, admitting themselves badly beaten. After the men were called out and had left their ships, they had the mortification of seeing their places filled by non-union engineers and the ships being put in commission again after a little delay. If the strike had continued for a few weeks longer the probability is that they would have found all their positions filled and themselves amongst the unemployed in their profession, and their places filled by men who occupied that position much to their own discomfort in the past, and who gladly availed themselves of the opportunity thus offered to get into permanent employment. The engineers blame the owners and do not consider they were treated honorably by them, but they seem to forget that they themselves assumed the offensive and put the knife to the owners throats, thinking tiiey could coerce them because they had hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property at stake and would be compelled to submit. They did not consider it dishonorable on their part to endeavor to bring serious and crushing loss on the owners, and therefore they should be prepared to accept reprisals from the owners adopted in self preservation. On whichever side the strength is the victory will be, and at present it is evidently not on the side of the engineers.