In accordance with an agreement between the union and the
Transport Commission, extra `lodging turns' were introduced over the week-end for firemen and drivers at the Newton Abbot depot. On a lodging turn a train crew works up to one station one day, spends the night away from home, and returns, working, next day. Since the war it has proved unpopular with foot-plate men (though not, strangely enough, with guards and waiters). It only affects a small proportion of railway staff, and for those it only means something like one night in ten away on an average. The result of the decision to crease the number of lodging turns at Newton Abbot has een a near-paralysis of West-country services, an almost omplete (though unofficial) strike of firemen and drivers in e three main Western Region depots (Paddington, Bristol and Newton Abbot), and a threat of extension to other depots during the next few days. The union has appealed to the men to return to work, with precisely no effect. It is rare for a strike to have as little to be said in its defence as the present one It is generally agreed by the unions that lodging turns are essential for the economy and efficiency of the railways. In modern conditions the night away from home involves little if any physical hardship—particularly at Paddington, where a brand new hostel provides a choice of 48 dishes, meals at all hours, billiards, central heating and packed sandwiches for one to three shillings a night (subsequently reimbursed). Com- pared with the Merchant Navy, or the airways staff or the Green Line bus drivers, the railwaymen are in clover in this respect; and if they plead homesickness, they had better not be engine drivers. At the present time, the unions are engaged in negotiating with the Transport Commission a relative improvement in the position of drivers and firemen within a new wage structure for the industry. The idea of more wages, but only for work more efficiently done, which is now generally understood in official union circles, is clearly still as remota as ever to the rank and file.
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