SHIPBUILDING STRIKE. LONDON, February 18.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 29

SHIPBUILDING STRIKE. LONDON, February 18.

Eighteen thousand men engaged in the engineering shops in the north and on che east coast have accepted the employers' offer of a modified reduction of a shilling a week, but of 12,000 members of the. Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the Steam Engine Makers' Society, and the Machine Workers' Society, 6140 voted for a strike instead of accepting the reduction, while 1307 voted against it. The strike begins to-morrow. February 20.

The engineers on the north-east coast have struck. A complete stoppage is threatened, throwing idle 83,000 men.

Mr Lloyd-George has been invited by Sir Andrew Noble, of Elswick, to confer with him regarding the crisis. February 22. Mr Lloyd-George's efforts to settle th« enginesie' strike are progressing.

It transpires that the shipbuilding employers have- decided, owing to the distress arising out of the depression of trade, to continue to employ as circumstances permit men of the trades in, which there has been no dispute; hence the lockout notices to those who accepted the modified reduction have been withdrawn. The employers insist, however, upon the shipwrights who are on strike accepting the Clyde rate. The strikeis reply that this is equivalent to a reduction of Z& per week, and they are determined not to resume work.