GREAT STRIKE IN WALES

Dunstan Times, Issue 571, 28 March 1873, Page 3

GREAT STRIKE IN WALES

The great strike of colliers and iron workers in South Wales has continued since New Year, and we fear will produce wide-spread misery before it is at an end. At present the men show no signs of giving way, and the colliers are seeking work in the midland and northern coal-fields of England. Of the latter, with whom the strike originated, there are said to be 20,000 now out of employment, besides 50,000 iron-workers and others. The masters proposed at the end of last year to reduce the rate of wages all round ten per cent., on the plea that rates then paid for iron were too low to hear the charge for wages. The men proposed that the question should he decided by arbitration. This the masters declined, as they feared that the decision of arbitrators would not bind large masses of men, and that no satisfaction would result from that course. They offered instead, to submit their hooks to the workmen or their deputies, in proof of their assertions, and suggested acceptance of the proposed terms for say three months, The men, in the meantime, arc staunch in asking either for a reference to arbitration or a continuance of the old rates, It appears that matters have been complicated by the secession of the coal-owners whose pits supply coal for steam and house purposes. As the latter kinds of coal fetch in the market double its cost at the pit-mouth the coal owners have thought fit to withdraw the notices of a reduction of wages, and the ironmasters and the owners of collieries in connection with ironworks stand alone. Thus matters stand at present. There is no sign of yielding amongst the thousands of dejected idlers who stroll about the villages of South Wales. Their conductis peaceable enough, yet the risk of public disorder is beginning to be felt by the bystanders. It is sad, indeed, in a time of such a conflict between workers and capitalists, inflicting enormous loss on each class. One of the first consequences of the strike of the South Wales colliers has been to suspend the operations of the Great Western Railway Company’s rail mills and steam hammer shops at Swindon, on account of the inability to obtain coal. Between 400 and 500 men are thus placed in enforced idleness. This is the second time the company’s works have suffered through the colliers’ strike, and it is said the Board intend obtaining powers to own and work collieries themselves, —London Colonial Feu's Jan. 24.