The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-18 00:00:00

To the R'ght. Hon. Lord Colville, K.T.

' May it please your Lordship,—We, the guards, foremen,
'hunters, and porters engaged at the King's•cross Passenger
Station of the Great Northern Railway, having heard of
your lordship's disapproval of the reductions in the wages of
the servants of the above company, beg humbly to submit to
your lordship their sincere thanks and appreciation for the
kind sympathy manifested by you on their behalf, at, the
same time assuring your lordship that the reduction is causing
great discontent and dissatisfaction among the servants so
affected by the reduction. And we sincerely hope that your
lordship will kindly use that powerful influence which you
have always carried both in the interest of the shareholders
and your servants generally. As the reduction only affects
about 1,500 of the company's servants and principally of
the lower classes, the nominal saving to the company
by this reduction would only amount to about £5,000
yearly. We therefore humbly appeal to your lordship to
exercise that power and authority which sour lordship
holds in the management of the affairs of the company to
have the servants so affected by the reduction placed on the
scale of payment they hitherto have been. Trusting that
we are not troubling your lordship too far, and with matters
of too complicated a nature, we, your lordship's humble
servants, will ever pray.'
An address of thanks to Mr. Bass, M P., for the interest he
had always taken in the welfare of railway servants was also
adopted. A telegram from the Bradford employes was then
read Capital meeting last night. Delegates from goods
guards, passenger guards, and shuaters will attend at Mr.
Oakley's office to-morrow at eleven. Letter by post to-
night. The meeting terminated with cheers for Mr. Bass,
after a general opinion was expressed that the matters in
dispute would be settled amicably:.

On Tuesday a deputation of guards and other servants
of the Great Northern Railway Company waited upon Mr.
Oakley. the secretary, at his office, King's-cross Terminus, to
lay before him their views upon the late reduction of wages.
All grades were represented on the deputation, and each one
of them addressed Mr. Oakley. Tne g ,ods guards pointed
out that their work was calculated at the rate of 72 hours
for a week's work, while other companies bad a much more
liberal scale with workmen of their grade. Objection was
also made to the scale on which overtime was calculated—
namely, that it should be reckoned as ordinary day time.
The men all expressed the warmest goodwill to the com-
pany, and expressed a hope that by abandoning the reduc-
tion they would restore the good feeling which had hitherto
existed.

Air. Oakley, in reply, promised to bring the whole
matter before the directors and explained the basis
on which the reduction was made. The reduction was in-
tended, he said, to effe only those who had benefited by
the increase of 1872 and 1873. For example the second
class goods guards, whose wages up to that time had been
259., were increased to 305., and it was now proposed to
reduce them to 28s. The wages of the goods porters,
which had been increased from 20s. or 21s. to 235., it was
proposed to reduce again to 20s. In the highest class the
reduction was only le. a week, and it applied to only about
11,300 men out of 8,000 or 9,000. The necessity for the re-
duction arose from the decreased earnings of the company
leaving less net profit on the work done. The deputation
then withdrew.


the latter rind have Once earned quite as much money
as before, but, of course, by increased hours. I have,
therefore, considerably reduced the cost of my manu-
factured goods, as, besides reduced wages, the fixed
expenses (in interest on plant and machinery, fore-
man's wages, and cost of fuel) are distributed over
more goods.
On making the change I at once gave my customers
all the benefit of it and at once found an increased
demand. My stocks have greatly decreased, my men
are all in full work, and I have even increased their
number. They lose less time, and are more sober than
ever before.
These facts speak for themselves.