Tile Railway Strike
While this country hovers on the brink of war, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen has chosen to call a strike of its members for midnight on Saturday of this week. Nothing could exceed the folly of this decision. It will harm their country, their class, their union, and their own cause; by its abuse of the strike weapon it will weaken trade union action everywhere. Its only advantage is to throw into even greater relief the moderation and wisdom of the National Union of Railwaymen and the Railway Clerks' Association, who are demanding a minimum wage of 5os. a week. Their claim, which has wide public sympathy, has been rejected by the companies; and it has now been resubmitted by the N.U.R. to the Railway Staff National Tribunal. Their self-restraint will increase the force of their claim. The Associated Society, on the other hand, is putting forward claims on behalf of 56,000 of the highest paid men in the industry, all of whom earn more than the minimum wage demanded by the N.U.R.; their decision is no doubt actuated by the knowledge that in normal times they could reduce the railway communications of the country to a standstill. These, however, are not normal times; and the locomotive men will have cause to regret that at such a moment they have put their own interests before those both of the country as a whole and of their fellow workers.
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