Page:Engines and men- the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men (IA enginesmenhistor00rayniala).pdf/137

 a week, when the companies only pay men for time actually worked. As they demand all time, it is only fair they should pay a full week's wage, instead of only a few shillings for working short time. In the event of a man leaving or being discharged from the company, the company should give such a person, if required, a statement of his services without writing across it 'not to be used in the United Kingdom.' That is serfdom, and would not be tolerated amongst any other class of workmen in the country."

There was only too much ground to fear that many of the fines referred to were imposed upon drivers on the evidence of other grades, who cloaked their own errors by resorting to the expedient of reporting against the driver.

The end of the year 1892 saw a total membership of 6,710, four new branches, and a balance in hand of £26,488. The companies had during that year reduced working time to four days weekly, and as the cost of living was increasing, men were finding it impossible to pay their trade union subscriptions out of the pittance they received. On the matter of regulation of hours it was held that men had no right to ask Parliament to do for them what they ought to do for themselves. In that year £308 were paid in out-of-work benefit, and fines and suspensions returned amounted to £231. These fines and suspensions had risen to £284 in the year 1893, often imposed for irregularities which ought to have been charged to other sections. Enginemen and firemen were still working only three or four days weekly, a condition attributed to the unfortunate stoppage of miners, which also had a serious effect on the financial progress of the Society. For example, the first half of the year saw an increase of 500 in the membership, but many of those thrown out of employment before they were in benefit fell out again owing to poverty, leaving a net increase for the year of only 305, making a total membership of 7,015. The strike cost the Society £850 in out-of-work pay to members, and £100 was granted to the Miners' Federation. Yet, though the expenditure for that trying year 1893 was high, the Society closed it with a balance of £32,484.