The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-05-21 00:00:00

METillget OF GLA.iS4AIOER3 AT STOUT

BRIDGE.

A. general meeting of fitatYglassmakers in the
Stourbridge district was herd on Monday at the
Glassmakers' Arms, Stourbridge, to receive a report
from the deputation who had met the employers at
the conference held at the Queen's Hotel, Birming-
ham, on the previous Monday, Mr. J. Aston
(chairman of the district) presided, and there was a
large attendance. The meeting, which was held in
private, lasted several lac urs, the various questions
raised at the conference being dealt with seriatim
and resolutions arrived at with regard to them.
The deputation submitted a report in which they
stated that at the conference the delegates told the
employers distinctly. that they coal.' not entertain
any proposal fori reduction of wages. On the
quest on of the broken chairs or single-hand chai-s
they were willing to assimilate the system at Stour-
bridge to that prevailing in Birmingham, and
instead of allowing half a move for the absence of
the servitor they would consent to a quarter of a
move. This would reduce the allowance in the
number of articles produced from 100 to 75, equiva-
lent to k per cent. on the total production of the
chair in such cases The question was put to the
meeting, and the action of the delegates was ratified
With reference to the question of modifying the
regulations in oases where employers state that they
cannot find employment for a chair the deputation
reported that they had declined to alter the rule.
The present rule of the society provides that it' any
employer supplies the men in any set with defective
or unsuitable material on representations being
made to him, or to give them other patterns to
work upon, the whole of the men are to leave their
employment. The masters proposed that in cases
where they bad not sufficient orders for a chair or
set, the men in that chair should go home, and the
remaining chairs should erntinue at work; but this
was totally objected to, especially in cases where
the rren were not in fault.

The meeting eventually decided that they could
not alter the custom, and accordingly if the master
had not sufficient work for one chair the whole of
the men will be directed to leave in a body.
It was pointed out that the icstances were ex-
tremely rare where the men left off work. The
next point was in regard to workmr n in laving
one manufactory to go to another. A minimum
rate of wages is fixed in each of tie various gradt 5
of the trade for the different classes of -yolk pro—
duced, but the maximum remunerar ton is le t to the
law of supply and demand. Thus, if an employer
wished to engage a workman from another factory
and pay him a higher wages than he was reeeiving
the society would not interfere. They stipulated,
however, that before an employer 3,10u1l promote
any man at his establishment to the higher gradt
the men who were out of employment in these
higher grades shaald first be tested, the society
paying all the expense of bringing the men from
other districts, even from Scotland, to t.-Itourbridge
or vice versa The meeting determined to adhere
to this regulation, which they rerrar.:ed as essential
to maintain the efficiency of the trade. At the same
time it was pointed out that there were more pro-
motions in the Stourbridge district than in all the
rest of the country put together. Ac other restric-
tion corn:, lained of by the masters was that in the
case of a man falling sick lii Lilac 3 was no to he
filled up for a month, but the delegates had in
formed t'.e employer that the men were wiiling
to modify this rule, and in cues of illness which
were likely to be ot a prolonged character, they
would give the Secretary of the Spciety discretion-
ary power to fill up the place immediately. The
&legates had expres ed their willingness to accept
the introduction of new modes or systems of work
. . .

provided that the standard of wages is not affected,
and the meeting acquiesced in this understanding.
It was stated in the course of the proceedings that
Major Walker (the Chairman of the Masters'
Association) wanted to introduce he foreign system
of work into this country. that gatem being to the
effect that when the workman, the head of the
chair, obtained a pattern he should mutually agree
with the employer as to the price at which he would
make tLe article by the doz-m, score, or hundrud.
The men objected to this because they urged that
there were men in all grades and ranks of life who
were iestitute of principle, and who would sell
their labour at the lowest puke. Thus, when a
workman stated a price which would e table the
men to realise the same wages he was earning at
the first time, the employer would endeavour to
abate the price and would go from one workman to
another and would establish a competition between
man and man, thereby bi letting do 4 n wag' s and
the price of. the article without benefit even to the
master in the long run. The men h lieved that
this was an attempt to settle them by the ears and
to destroy trades union combination, and they
wou:d, therefore. resist to their utmost