13 MAY 1922, Page 3

The dispute in the shipbuilding trades was ended last week

and many men resumed work on Monday. The trade unions took a ballot on the employers' proposal to reduce the War bonus from 26s. 6d. to 10s. a week. Not one man in three troubled to vote ; of those who voted, a majority of 5,000 was adverse to the proposal. The union leaders ruled that, as a two-thirds majority was required for the continuance of a strike, the men should return to work. A most futile and harmful strike thus ended. Much repair work has been lost. Orders for new ships are withheld until contract prices! in which the cost of labour is the main item, can be reduced. The unions had to choose between growing unemployment and a fair amount of work at wages adjusted to the lower prices of to-day.