Engines and Men/Chapter 19
Chapter XIX
There is little need for me to deal with the 1914 Railway Conciliation Scheme, as agreed upon before the war, and allowed to remain in abeyance by a mutual agreement dated October 1st, 1914, following the outbreak of the war. The agreement was reached at a meeting between the General Managers' Committee, the A.S.L.E. & F. and the N.U.R., and it provided, as I have already indicated, that the Conciliation Scheme dated December 11th, 1911, should remain in force, and that the men's side on each of the several railways as then constituted should continue to act, provided that any of the three parties might give six weeks' notice ta determine the agreement. It was further agreed that all existing contracts and conditions of service should remain in operation, and that no new agreements should be made during the suspensory period. The scheme, therefore, which was printed, and was to have become operative on December 1st, 1914, remained in suspense, and we come to the resumption of the story of that remarkable year 1917 before we find a further attempt on the part of the Society to establish new machinery for presenting the claims of its members to the employers.
To come directly to its provisions as applicable to enginemen, firemen, cleaners, and electric trainmen, it provided for national proposals affecting wages and hours of labour to be submitted to the companies by the E.C. of the A.S.L.E. & F., through the General Secretary. In the event of the reply not being satisfactory, representatives were appointed to meet the representatives of the Railway Companies to negotiate. The procedure in summary was as follows:—
1.—There shall be established on each railway a Delegation Board to deal with rates of wages, hours of labour, or conditions of service, including matters of discipline and management. (A distinct advance on the 1911 Scheme.)2.—In regard to other than national settlements, the Delegation Board shall be the medium, and all cases must be forwarded in writing.3.—If the employees wish to bring before the notice of the company a matter affecting the contractual relations between the company and their employees, a Delegation Board Conference shall be held. If the majority of delegates at the Conference approve of the matter, it shall be sent to the company's officials by the Secretary of the Delegation Board, with a request to receive a deputation within fourteen days, and it may next be referred to the Board of Directors, and if satisfaction is not reached, it is referred to the Executive Committee.4.—Matters not requiring a National Agreement, and not being detrimental to, or interpretations of, the National Agreements, may in the first place be dealt with by the Delegate Board, and if satisfaction is not reached, may be referred to the Executive Committee.
Matters such as discipline and management, including punishment, may be dealt with by the Delegation Board, or employees may avail themselves of the provisions of Clause 72, as agreed upon by the Railway Companies in 1916, as follows:—
72. Offences Against Discipline, Etc.
"Men charged with misconduct, neglect of duty, or other breaches of discipline, shall be permitted to state their defence, to call witnesses, and to advance any extenuating circumstances before their officers prior to a final decision being arrived at. Where doubts arise, or where serious results to men are likely to follow, the case should, we think, be placed before the higher officials of the company."
If after such investigation an employee is found guilty, he has the right of appeal to a superior officer for re-consideration, the appeal to be made in writing. On a personal interview he may be accompanied by a fellow-workman, or by an official of his trade union. Matters of discipline, management, punishments, etc., not disposed of by such procedure, may be referred to the General Secretary and Executive Committee.
Clause 8 of the Scheme lays down the procedure for the selection of delegates to the Delegate Board, four from each district on the system, and the election being conducted by the Board of Trade. The scheme was to remain in operation for twelve months, and thereafter be subject to revision or termination on three months' notice being given by either side, a general election of each Delegation Board to take place at least once in every three years. The provisions for a Secretary of each side and for leading members followed broadly the scheme of 1911. Clause 21 provided for each employee to receive a printed booklet form of his rate of wages, hours and conditions, and a periodical print of all conditions. Clause 22 provided for all decisions, settlements and agreements to be posted at all depots, signed by the Chairman and Secretary of each side.
It would be convenient also to state here the National Programme decided upon by the A.A.D. of 1917 for locomotivemen and electric trainmen:—
Hours: 8 hours per day; Sunday duty to be paid for as double time, this also to apply to Good Friday and Christmas Day; time and a quarter for all overtime and for night duty between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.; guaranteed day for each time of signing on duty; guaranteed week, exclusive of Sunday.
Rest: At least twelve hours rest between each turn of duty at home station; at least nine hours when booked off away from home station.
Wages: Enginemen and electric motormen. 14s. per day; if reduced to firemen or electric trainmen, 14s. per day. Firemen and electric trainmen, 10s. per day, or after 15 years service without promotion to driver, 14s. per day; if reduced to cleaners or gatemen, to receive 10s. per day. Cleaners and electric train gatemen, 7s. per day of 8 hours.
Higher Duties: Firemen and electric trainmen, employed as enginemen or electric motormen, to receive not less than the engineman's or motorman's rate of pay, each turn of duty to be recorded, and after completing 313 turns as such, or 15 years in the service, whichever comes first, to be rated as enginemen or motormen. Cleaners and gatemen when employed on work other than cleaning, firing, gatework, etc., to receive the rate of pay of that work, or their own rate of pay, whichever is the highest.
In every Agreement a clause to be included as follows:—For the regulation of advances and reductions in accordance with the cost of living, the cost of living during June, 1917, shall be the unit. Every ten per cent. increase in the cost of living from that date shall warrant a ten per cent. increase in the standard rate of pay, reductions to be on the same basis, but no reductions in the rate of pay shall take place if the cost of living falls below the June, 1917, Board of Trade returns.
Rent Allowance 5s. per week special rent allowance to all men in the London area and expensive industrial centres.
Mileage Rates: 130 miles on express passenger trains to be paid as one day; 100 miles on local passenger trains and express goods trains to be paid as one day. All miles run in excess to be paid for at the rate of 10 miles per hour.
Lodging Allowance: 2s. per day where the company provide accommodation; 3s. per day where the men provide their own. In each case 6d. an hour extra for each hour exceeding ten, when booked away from home station.
Holidays: 14 days holiday with pay after 12 months service.
Irreducible Minimum: No agreement that brings about a reduction in the amount received under the present wages scales, plus bonus and allowances, to be accepted.
Any who from ill-health or defective eyesight, brought about in their employment, are taken off the footplate, shall be retained in the companies' employment, and be paid not less than the rate of pay they were receiving when taken off the footplate.
We shall come presently, in the next chapter, to the prolonged arguments that occupied from February 12th to August 28th of 1919, with the object of securing that National Programme. It seems essential for the moment, however, to adhere to the events of 1917, for the Conference which fashioned the Programme was quickly followed by the eight hours day campaign just dealt with, and by the wage negotiations and cost of living basis. It was arranged that in those negotiations before the Committee on Production, witnesses other than members of the E.C. should be called, drivers, firemen, and cleaners were drawn from the various systems to give evidence in the arbitration proceedings. Summaries of the evidence given have appeared both in Special Circulars and in the "Journal," and the presentation of the case, it may be added, resulted in an increase of the war wage of railwaymen by 5s. per week to those of 18 years and over, and 2s. 6d, to those under that age. The award arrived on November 20th, and the increase became payable in all cases from the first full week in December, making the total war wage one pound weekly. Within a few days the increase was advanced to 6s. and 3s. respectively, on a 2 per cent, increase in the cost of living.
On Friday, August 31st, before this hearing began, the E.C. had met the Railway Executive and had discussed the question of increased lodging allowances, the provision of food when booked off unexpectedly, the fuller application of Clause 72 of the Royal Commission's Report on all systems, and increased wages. The Railway Executive sympathetically discussed the first three questions, but could only offer the agreement already operating, which turned the war bonus into war wages, with further consideration later on. There was acrimony existing towards the Society at the time, as the N.U.R. was doing its best, subsequent to the libel action, to disprove the claim of the Society to represent the footplate fraternity. Those foolish efforts found an echo in the Trade Union Congress, but as they all proved only hurtful to the N.U.R., and resulted in the rapid growth of the Associated, they need not be argued here.
Brief allusion should be made here, I think, to the tremendous part played by locomotive men in the war. There was a never-ending stream of traffic between England and France for over five years, and it loaded the railways excessively. Drivers and firemen willingly gave themselves to the supreme task, and hundreds of cases were recorded of men working twenty, thirty, forty, and even up to seventy hours continuously. This exhausting toil gave the zest of desperation to the demand for the recognition of an eight hour day, and when it began steadily to operate in 1919, men laughed at the change, and wives were very glad over the marked improvement. Let us look at some figures of the first year of war only. Up to August, 1915, 100,000 officers, 2,586,000 other ranks, and 542,000 horses, were moved from point to point. The supplies sent to France included 288,000 tons of food; 533,000 tons of forage, 59,000 tons of fuel, 29,000 tons of medical stores, seventeen million gallons of petrol, and nearly five million gallons of oil, in addition to 491,000 mail bags, 184,000 tons of engineering stores, and 131,000 tons of ordnance. Rolling stock was shipped in great quantities, and many complete branch lines were taken up entire and relaid in France.
Every company had its specially built ambulance trains, splendidly fitted as complete hospitals of eight wards, including isolation wards, to carry the wounded from Dover, Southampton, and Newhaven to the great military hospitals in all parts of the country. Heavy trains of munitions and heavy trains of wounded passed each other on the line, these hospital trains being distinguished by the large red crosses on every coach. Every station had its first-aid department and its free buffet for soldiers and sailors. Everywhere the railways reflected war conditions, and sittings of the Executive Committee were distinguished by the explosion of bombs dropped by aeroplanes and airships of the enemy in dangerously close proximity.
Even the chairmen of companies had something complimentary to say about the services of railwaymen during those tragic years. For example, the following:—
Lord Muncaster, at the annual meeting of the Furness Railway, February 17th, 1917—"May I say a few words on the services which have been rendered to you by our officers and staff during probably the most trying and difficult time which the railways have ever passed through? ... The work of the officers and staff has necessarily been greatly increased, and has been carried out in a very satisfactory manner to the Government, the railway, and the public."
Lord Claude Hamilton, M.P., at the Great Northern Railway meeting, February 11th, 1917:—"At the present time 5,730 men, representing 17.3 per cent. of the total staff employed, have been either called or enlisted with the company's consent, whilst some 150 who left without permission are known to have joined the Army or Navy. I regret to record that 209 men have been killed in action or died of wounds, whilst a number have been reported "missing" for months. The men who have been reported wounded and at the various hospitals number 200 to 300. All these men have been communicated with, and where possible visited, and comforts supplied to them, and they feel that the company and their employees are taking a continuing interest in their welfare."
Mr. H. W. Thornton (at the same meeting): "I am proud to say that every man in the service of the company, however humble his position, has loyally and patriotically supported the management, and done his share in contributing towards the success of this war."
Sir Frederick Banbury, M.P., at the Great Northern Railway meeting, February 11th, 1917: "I should like to say one word upon the great services which have been rendered to you by our officers and staff during a very trying and difficult period. A very great amount of traffic has been carried, and as you all know, the staff has been greatly depleted. Consequently the work which has fallen upon our men and our officers has been greatly increased. I think that you owe a great debt of gratitude to our officers and staff."
Viscount Churchill, at the Great Western Railway meeting, February 24th: "I may say without hesitation that we are having to deal with an enormous volume of traffic, greatly in excess of normal times. It is only owing to the most careful forethought on the part of our officers and the zealous co-operation of the staff that these difficulties have been able to be overcome."
Sir Gilbert Henry Claughton, Bart., at the London & North Western Railway meeting, February 25th: "It speaks volumes for those both in authority and under authority for the way they have wholeheartedly grasped the importance of efficiency under most difficult and trying circumstances. It only remains for me to give a cheering word of gratitude and encouragement to our staff."
During the years 1917 and 1918 there was a very marked increase in the number of women and girls employed as engine cleaners. Being only a temporary feature of railway life, they were never admitted to the Society, but thousands of women were daily engaged in cleaning engines and moving about the sheds clad in various styles of overalls, leggings, puttees, and trousers. It is appropriate to mention here, I think, that the pressure of war conditions contributed to the most terrible railway disaster on record, the wrecking of a troop train from Scotland, near to Gretna, on May 22nd, 1915, which entailed a death roll of 227. At that time human life was going so cheaply, in such wholesale slaughter on the Continent, that this awful calamity did not evoke a tithe of the interest that Aisgill did in 1913, or that Newtown did on January 26th of 1921. The operation of D.O.R.A., too, and the fear of depressing national spirits, caused a suppression of details of the Gretna catastrophe.
For eleven years, up to the close of 1917, Mr. Geo. Wride had been an active and earnest member of the Executive, and on the expiration of his term of office on December 31st, 1917, his Executive colleagues marked his retirement by a smoking concert, at which Mr. W. W. Cooke handed to Mr. Wride an illuminated and framed address, the gift of his colleagues, in appreciation of services rendered, and inscribed: "Dear and Trusted Friend." It recorded 27 years membership, and six years of presidency, and the token of "personal and cordial affection" was signed by his colleagues in harness: Wm. Worthy Cooke, W. Stevenson, John Healey, W. Gamble, Barton Wild, W. J. R. Squance, J. H. Oxlade, Samuel Garrison, C. W. Jarman, James Walker, J. C. Branson, John Bromley, and Geo. Moore.
District Councils had been taking more definite shape since the Conference of 1917, and they were developing in all parts of the country on lines that were destined to have an important relation to the constitution of the Society. At first they were very educational, and at once they bridged a gap between the E.C. and the branches. In 1918 a list of these District Councils and the branches they represented was presented to the E.C., and each year saw a growth of their functions and responsibility, until in 1921 the A.A.D. faced the proposal to make them a definite part of the Constitution, and an electoral source for the members of the Executive.
Mr. Worthy Cooke was elected president, and Mr. W. Stevenson Vice-President, for the year 1918, and Mr. A. Holder received a welcome on taking his seat as representative of Bristol District. While the year 1917 was giving place to 1918, important correspondence had passed between the General Secretary and Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service, which culminated in conferences with that Minister during January. The subject was a _(page_271_crop).jpg)
The Executive Committee Room at Head Office.
In a further letter dated January 2nd, 1918, the General Secretary said he had the instructions of the Executive to emphasise the fact that the footplates were so denuded of men as to cause unbearably excessive hours, turns of 15 and 16 hours being very common, and up to 29 hours being worked without relief. During the same period the Executive Committee were in communication with the Board of Trade and Railway Executive on the subject of excessive time. On January 18th representatives of the Executive, with the General Secretary, visited the Board of Trade, and handed in particulars of excessive hours, along with excessive weeks, ranging from 70 to 121 hours, affecting nearly 200 depots. On the previous day they had visited the Food Ministry, pointing out the difficulties of members in regard to food. Efforts had also been made to obtain the 12 per cent. increase recently granted to munition workers by Mr. Churchill, made applicable to the Society, but without success.
It was a time, too, of special conferences of the Labour movement on Peace, Food Supply, and other vital matters. The Labour Party decided to hold its Annual Conference in June for the future, and therefore brought forward its 1919 Conference to June, 1918, having thus three annual conferences in twelve months, to each of which the Society sent delegates. A letter was received from the War Office, inviting the Society to send 35 representatives on a visit to the war zone, but it was declined, although many trade unions sent representatives to France as the guests of the War Office.
Such are the ways of Government that it is necessary to contemplate the motive for every such action, and January of 1918 brought the full explanation, in the conferences held between the Government and representatives of trade unionism on the further combing-out already alluded to. The conferences, two of which were addressed by the Prime Minister, were to explain the necessity of getting 420,000 more men for the Army and Navy, and in regard to footplatemen. Mr. Bromley had already expressed the impossibility of further diluting the locomotive workers, who had lost 11,000 of the regular workers since 1913. Substitution was the phrase of the day, but it is impossible to substitute drivers and firemen on railway work. Young boys were then being employed with men long past the retiring age. "I sometimes find lads on our shunting engines who have a difficulty in making themselves seen," wrote Ivor Gregory. "Imagine lads who have to climb to look through the eye-glass, and have to stretch to look over the side-door on some of our engines, being jointly responsible with the driver for safe working!" It should be further noted that during this period of draining of men from essential industries for the fighting line, an orgy of luxury spending was rampant in England. The war profiteer had become a real and plentiful person, numbering thousands, and all anxious to display outwardly their new wealth. Motor-cars were booming so much that one popular make was advanced £100 in price per car in a single week. Diamonds and fur-coats were the rage, and the jeweller and the furrier never had such years. Women especially were lavish in their expenditure, and a riot of luxury spending marked national life.
Correspondence was proceeding between Mr. Bromley and Lord Rhondda, then Food Controller, on the inadequate ration for men who were sent away from home unexpectedly. The Ministry of Food handed it over to the Railway Executive, to whom Mr. Bromley pointed out the special need of a larger meat ration to firemen shovelling forward and feeding to the furnace three to eight tons of coal per day, and to drivers of shunting engines exerting full strength every time they reversed the engine gear. On February 27th Mr. Bromley went into the matter with members of the Railway Executive, and the extra allowance was made to men who were booked or called upon at short notice to lodge away from home, as follows:—
| Quantity. | Price. | |
| Meat | 4 ounces | 6½d. |
| Cheese | 2½ ounces | 2½d. |
| Biscuit (if required) | 1 pound | 6d. |
| Jam | 4 ounces | 2½d. |
| Tea | 1 ounce | 2d. |
Cheese took the place of meat on meatless days.
Men were allowed to have any or all of the above, but no more of one article if others were not required. This addition to the home rations was specially helpful to men always travelling, but further efforts were made to get supplementary rations on account of arduous work, the above extras being allowed for absence from home. There were early and numerous complaints about the biscuit, which defied all human teeth, and was best cracked under the heel or with a coal hammer. It was very nutritious, the War Office said, but the grinding of it required a lot of perseverance