The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-15 00:00:00

THE ENGINEERING TRADES:

The Times of Monday says :—" By far the largest
turn-out of engineers in the metropolitan district
eccurred last Saturday afternoon, when the Wen em-
ployed at Messrs. Penn and Sons, Greenwich, to the
number of over 600, left their work with the determina-
tion not to return to it to-flay unless under the old
rate of wages. The next largest strike in any
single establishment is that of Messrs. Humphrys,
Tennant, and Co.'s men at Deptford. Both at
Penns' and Humphrys, Tennant, and Co.'s there
were, necessarily, non-union men who have no claim
on the funds of the Amalgamated Society, and in
order to sustain these men while they are out of
employment local committees are being formed both
in Greenwich and Deptford, as they were in 1871, to
assist non-union men. In other metropolitan districts
—Lambeth and Southwark, for instance—'-committees
for the relief of the men on strike who do not belong
to the society s.re being formed, and will be in a condi-
tion at the end of the present week to give them a
moderate amount of strike par, The amount
allowed by the Amalgamated Society to their
members on strike will be 15s, per week. The hands
in the employment of Mr. Worssam, of Chelsea, will
probably consent to remain at their benches under a
reduction of 6d. in the pound, or 2i instead of 7i per
cent. The men in the employment of Mr. Shears,
Southwark, have all struck work. Only about. 60
men have come out of the extensive firm of Maudslay,
Sons, and Field, of Westminster-bridge-road; and one
reason assigned for this is that the majority of the
hands have been employed for many years under the
firm, and have become attached to the place. Taking
the 17 firms in London which have determined to
carry the proposed reduction into effect and the steps
taken by their men, there are at the present time
about 2,500 engineers on strike in the metropolis."

The Pall Mall Gazette of Monday, in their article on
Trade and Finance," remarks :
- -

The men employed in the London engineering
trades have willfully shut their eyes to the evidence
of facts. It is computed that about 2,000 of them
have already gone out on strike, and the numbers are
expected to be increased. It is not necessary to accept
the employers cage in full to perceive the folly of
this conduct. All over the country wages are
being cut down and workpeople discharged; there
is in consequence ,a superabundance of people
seeking employment. For that reason the masters
will have no difficulty in supplying the places
of those who have struck. At the same time the
demands upon the charitable are so many and so
urgent, that the non-unionists have but a small chance
of obtaining contributions to enable them to carry on
the struggle. In the end, therefore, the men will
have to accept the lowered wages, when they have
absolutely lost several weeks' earnings, exhausted elle
union funds and their own savings, and subjected
_their families to privation and suffering.

The Times of Tuesday says :—" From the latest re-
ports received at the head office of the Amalgamated
Society of Engineers, it appears that the turn-out of
the men at Messrs. Penn and Sons', Greenwich, and
Messrs. Humphry and Tennant's, Deptford, has been
more complete than was ever anticipated by either
the employers or their workmen. Based upon
the latest reports received by the Amalgamated
Society of Engineers last evening, the conclusion has
been arrived at that the total number of men who
will be out of work through the strike will not
exceed 1,500. The total number of men employed
in the London engineering trade not in any way
affected by the reduction is estimated at from 8,000 to
9,000. These engineers have, through their delegates,
expressed to the society their conviction that, apart
from feelings of sympathy with the men on strike,
they will be obliged, in order to keep up the standard
of their own wages, to subscribe weekly to the support
of the men who are ont, and that if they do that to
half the amount which is likely to be saved to them
by those who are resisting the reduction, a sufficient
sum would be raised to give a good weekly allowance
to the whole of the men who are on strike."