Railway Strike

The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen went on strike because the decrease of wages decided by the National Wages Board came into effect. The railway communications of the whole country were disrupted by the single action of a group of men. Fears were entertained that other transport .workers would call a sympathy strike.

The causes of the strike are that some years ago the railway officials demanded a progressive cut in wages based on the cost of living. The National Wages Board agreed to the reduction and it was accepted by the executive committee of the National Union of Railwaymen. It was subsequently put to the vote of the men, who rejected the agreement by a five to one majority.

Messrs. J. H. Thomas (slated for the post of Minister of War in the Macdonald Cabinet) and C. T. Cramp, General Secretaries of the Railwaymen's Union, issued a manifesto declaring that "any member of the National Union of Railwaymen who ceases work, or refuses to do any job that he would have done if there had been no strike, is a blackleg to the signature of his accredited representatives and a traitor to the decision of the special general meeting. . . . Up to this moment we have refused to believe, although preparing for all emergencies, that so grave a blunder and such a blow at the very principles of collective bargaining should have been embarked upon."

Fred Bromley, Assistant Secretary of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress, in a special meeting took steps to reopen negotiations with the men and the railway companies, but all his efforts were abortive. As the Labor Party, the political organ of Labor, had left the matter entirely in the hands of Mr. Bromley and the Trades Union Congress, it did not take any action on its own account. For this reason, and the fact that Labor chose td antagonize the public at the moment the Labor Party was stepping into the shoes of the Conservative Government, the strike was held to be a severe blow to the prestige of Labor in Parliament.

The importance of a railway strike is not to be found so much in the in- convenience it causes travelers, as in its paralyzing effect on food distribution Practically every ounce of food has to be transported from the coast in trains to the large cities and towns, and the stoppage of such railway service aims a devastating blow at the people as a whole, for not one of the large towns is capable of storing enough food to last its population more than a few days.

As in the railway strike of 1919, when volunteer forces succeeded in smashing the movement, volunteers are being organized to run the railways and a huge volunteer motor transport service was ready to supply effective aid in no small measure to the cities of England which are most in need of it.