Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/122

Rh night-gangs would commence between eleven and twelve o’clock.

I may as well state here that on Saturday the men only worked seven hours, but were paid for ten. They went down, as on other days, at six; came up to breakfast from nine to ten, and the first, or day-shift, finished at two. The second, or night-shift, commencing at two, worked only till ten, making seven hours, with one off for a meal; and the works, except the pumping, were not carried on at all from 10 p.m. on Saturday till 6 a.m. on Monday.

After refusing to commence the shift they went off to the nearest public-house, came back primed with drink, and gathered in front of the pay-office grumbling; but they never came to me or the foreman and stated any grievance or asked for any concession. They simply determined to make trouble and stop the works if they could. I was in the office at the time, so I went down into the middle of them, and said:

‘Now, what do you fellows want?’

No answer.

‘Now, tell me what you want, and don’t stop hanging about here.’

Then one of them said:

‘We wants the eight-hour shifts.’

I said: ‘My good men, you will never get that, if you stop here for a hundred years. There is a train at two o’clock, and if you don’t make haste and