3-034-658 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The engineers' strike at Newcastle: arrival of foreign workmen, 1871. Dispute between '...journeymen "engineers," or rather machine-makers, and their employers...[relating] to a proposed reduction of the ordinary amount of labour, for the regular week's wages, from fifty-nine hours to fifty-four hours...The men would be disposed in most instances to work more hours, but would then expect to be paid an additional sum for working over time...The case on behalf of the employers has been...set forth by Mr. George Robert Stephenson and Sir William Armstrong...On the other side, great efforts have been made among some classes of workpeople, belonging to different trades..., to encourage the strike of the Newcastle engineers...The men have been living either upon their..savings or upon the pittance allowed them by...workmen's associations...the employers have subscribed a fund of £20,000 and upwards for the immigration of foreign workmen, to supply the places of those who refuse to work on the terms offered. About 1400 men have, since the first week in September, arrived from Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway..There has been much apprehension at Newcastle of a breach of the peace being occasioned by the presence of these foreign rivals'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.