The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-19 00:00:00

THE SEVERITY OF CONTINENTAL
COMPETITION.
(From Wednesday's Timrs)

"Our Sheffield Correspondent writes : —` On Friday
Mr. Kane, President of the Ironworkers' Association,
had an interview with Mr. Ellis, managing director of
the Atlas Works, from which many men have been dis-
charged. Mr. Kane asked that Mr. Ellis would en-
deavour to find as many of the rail men, bloomers,
and other ironworkers as had been discharged em-
ployment as day labourers, or in any other capacity,
so as to keep them, as it were from absolute
want. Mr. Ellis said he could hold out no hope
of being able to find employment, but he would
communicate with the manages of several de-
partments with the object of endeavouring to carry
out Mr. ICane's wish. A meeting of the men under
notice and those actually discharged was subsequently
held at the " Carwood Hotel," when Mr. Kane ex-
plained what had occurred at the interview. In the
course of his address he referred to the great depression
prevailing in the steel trade. There were, he said,
800 men out of employment in Middlesborough and the
same number at Stockton, while at several of the larger
ironworks in the North a considerable number of fur-
naces had been let off, and the men were sharing what
work there was between them. In consequence of the
depression and competition other modes of manufacture
were being introduced, by which fewer men would be
required. Whether these modes would be a success
or not he could not say, but the question was, How
were they to maintain the men discharged? At the
conclusion of Mr. Kane's address the men passed a re-
solution expressing their determination to abide by a
recommendation of his to endeavour to raise funds at
the various works for the support of the unemployed.
Between 800 and 1,000 men engaged in the iron and steel
trades inShetfieldare now out of employment,the notices
given to them a fortnight since having expired on
Saturday. Some of them will be re-engaged during
the coming week at a reduction of wages ranging in
amount from 15 to 20 per cent. ; others will have to
consent to a reduction of wages or resume work ac-
cording to the ten hours' system (abandoned when the
ten hours' movement became general), while a con-
siderable number will not be re-engaged at all. These
are the hammer-men at the well-known works of John
Brown and Company, whose discharge has been caused
by the introduction of a comparatively new process of
manufacturing rails, by which hamering is dispensed
with. In the present depressed condition of the railway
trade, the hammer-men have scarcely any prospect of
finding employment elsewhere. They are willing to
take situations as day labourers in any of the iron and
steel departments, and an interview which Mr. Kane
(secretary of the Ironworkers' Association), had with
the chairman of John Brown and Co. the latter
promised that he would give them the preference in
the event of labourers being required. But se little
hope is there of anything like constant employment
for some months to come that many of the men are
thinking of emigrating. The notice given to the tire-
men at the same works also expired on Saturday; the
probability is that they will resume work early in the
week at a reduction of 20 per cent. At the works of
Messrs. Brown, Bayley, and Dixon (Limited) great
changes are being made, and in order to carry them
out about 500 men have been discharged or are under
notice. Hitherto at these works it has been the
custom to pay the hammer-drivers and enginemen at
the rate of Ms, per week, and when the hammers were
not going the men were employed at Ibouring work,
receiving, however, the same wages as if they were
employed at the hammers. They have now received
notice that when they are employed at the hammers
they shall be paid the same rateof wages as heretofore,
but that when the hammers are still they shall be paid
only as labourers. In the rail department, where the
men are employed as straighteners and punchers, notice
has been given for a return to the old system of ten
hours per day, inasmuch 119 the nine hours' system has
so increased the cost of production that it is found im-
possible to continue it longer with profit. The rollers
and furnacemen are asked to submit to a reduction of
fifteen per cent., and the men who take the molten
metal from the furnaces to the mills, called
" b igie men," are asked to submit to a re-
duction of 4s. per week. The notices affecting
the men employed in these various departments—
to the number of 600—expired also on Saturday, and
although at their meeting held the same night no formal
resolution was passed, there was a general understand-
ing that the new proposals would be submitted to.
At the works of Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Co. the
men employed in the steel shops have decided to
return to the ten hours' system in preference to a re-
duction of wages, and in other departments of the
same works wages have been cut down considerably.
Most of these reductions and discharges have been
caused by the severity of Continental competition.
It is said that orders for railway material are being
executed onthe Continent for less than the actual cost
in England."