28 JULY 1923, Page 3

* * * * The dispute regarding the men employed

in the work- shops of the old Great Northern Railway, now part of the London and North-Eastern system, has reached a crucial stage, and deserves special attention, because it is a dispute between rival trade unions. The National Union of Railwaymen, which has some members employed in the workshops, threatens to call them out on strike next Wednesday if the company does not apply to the old Great Northern workshops Award No. 728 of the Industrial Court. The company maintains that the old Great Northern Company was no party to that award, and further, that the other unions having members in the workshops ought to be consulted. These other unions are strongly opposed to Award No. 728. The Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades and the Amalgamated Engineering Union, both very large and powerful bodies, did not wish the award to be applied in any railway workshops, and object to its extension to the Great Northern workshops, which were not originally concerned. The Federations of Building Trades Operatives and General Workers are alto interested, for men of various trades are necessarily employed in railway workshops.