NATIONAL TRADES COUNCIL FORMING. London, October 5.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 418, 9 November 1889, Page 5

NATIONAL TRADES COUNCIL FORMING. London, October 5.

Twelve thousand cement men at Medway and a thousand unskilled woikmen at Severn Valley are forming union?. The last two hundred blacklegs employed at the London Docks have been dismissed, receiving £4 in lieu of notice. All of these men subsequently joined the Union, paying fines of half-a-guinea imposed by the Union in addition to the entrance fee of a guinea. Some friction has taken place at Tilbury between the lightermen and their employers. During the morning everything appeared to have been satisfactorily at ranged, but in the aiteinoon it transpired that the Dock Companies,, who were supposed to have virtually yielded everything demanded by the strikers, were called upon to compensate the strikers. It is probable that the demand made by docktrs at Tilbuiy for payment during the dinner hour will be conceded generally. The labourers employed at twenlyone wharves at Wapping threaten to strike unless they receive sixpence! instead of fivepence an hour, the rate of remuneration hitherto received. Two hundred blacklegs working on i the wool floor at the London docks j were forced to pay half-a guinea entrance fee, although they had previously entered the Union through trickery. The dockers now refuse to clear ' ships employing non-Union crews.

A National Trades Council, embracing delegates from all Unions, will be formed shortly. The strikers had a triumphant procession to Hyde Park on Sunday last.