On This Day, 26 July 1918

Birmingham Mail

Friday 26 July 1918

HOW TO “CARRY ON.”

THE POSITION AT A BIRMINGHAM WORKS.

A FATHER’S THOUGHT OF HIS SONS.

“It is not a dispute between employers and employed,” said the official of a large business concern in Birmingham. “Of course, we do not wish to encourage the strike. All the works in the Birmingham area are determined upon one thing – they will carry on as long as it is at all possible without the men who are out.”

“Taking our own case as an example, we have about 12,000 workpeople. The men out on strike number 1,400. Those who are out at present, not on strike, but unable to work, number only about 120. In a works like this we can carry on with the rest of the workers. We have still in the works a certain number of skilled men who can look after the machines, men who are not members of the unions on strike. For instance, we have a fitter who belongs to the Workers’ Union. He said yesterday, ‘I’ll see them in hell before I strike. I have two sons at the front!’ Another man, a member of the A.S.E., took off his badge, threw it down, and stamped upon it, saying, ‘They shan’t have another penny of my money!’ Every man like this is, of course, some use, but they are not many.

“Then we have works managers, foremen and others who would get their coats off and use what knowledge they possess as fitters or toolmakers in keeping the works going. I find a number of the A.S.E. men on strike are only half-hearted about it, and it is evident to my mind that a large proportion of them have no real sympathy with the strike, and are only out because they are under control of their union.”