14 DECEMBER 1912, Page 1
On Sunday last a very serious strike was begun on
the North-Eastern Railway, the cause being the reduction in grade of a Gateshead engine-driver named Knox. Knox about a month ago was fined 5s. and costs on a charge of being drunk and disorderly. Upon this he was reduced from the rank of a main-line express goods train driver to a pilot-engine driver. The men demanded his reinstatement on the ground that Knox was off duty at the time of the offence and that his degradation was an infringement of personal liberty. It is further alleged by them that be was wrongfully convicted of drunkenness. Though the Union officials have not ordered the strike, and have indeed, as far as they dared, attempted to prevent the men going out, the strike has most seriously affected the working of the line.
