"The one supreme task today of the Trade Union Movement must be to win the war. The alternative to that would mean the complete annihilation of all the freedom of the present and all hope for the future."
F.C. Watkins JP MP
President RCA, 1940 Annual Conference.
At 11.00 hours on Sunday 3rd September 1939, when MPs were assembling in the Commons, they knew that if the Government's ultimatum to Germany to withdraw its troops from Poland had not been obeyed, the nation was at war. At that very moment an air-raid warning sent them to the gas proof shelters, but they were quickly released and, at 12.00 hours, were told by the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, that both France and the UK were at war with Germany. Soon afterwards, the RCA's head office at 25, Euston Road was transferred from London; the membership records and the accounts staff went to Rock, near Wadebridge, Cornwall, and the remainder were based at Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
Éire opted for neutrality, a decision that was supported by all its political parties. At one stage J.T. O'Farrell was criticised for taking a pro-British position but, in fact, he was a strong advocate of neutrality and consistently argued that Éire should be strengthened militarily in order to safeguard its borders.1 In 1940, Eamon De Valera, the Taoiseach, (Prime Minister) of Éire's Government, concerned that its neutrality was under threat appealed for volunteers to defend the country and many RCA members responded. The Irish Labour Party co-operated with the Government and an All-party Committee of Defence was formed, composed of three members of the Government, three members of the opposition and two members of the Labour Party, one of whom was William Davin. From June 1940, the British Government restricted travel between the two countries and in 1944 delegates from Ireland were unable to attend the Association's Annual Conference.
The Government took control of Britain's railways on 1st September 1939, with the companies responsible for managing the day to day business as before, but under the overall policy of the Railway Executive Committee (REC). The chairman was Sir Ralph Wedgwood who had been General Manager of the LNER since 1923. He, in turn, reported to the Minister for Transport. A number of RCA members were appointed to key positions of responsibility during the war. George Lindgren was the Deputy Regional Commissioner for civil defence in the West Midland Region from 1942-1945; Percy Morris occupied the same post with responsibility for Wales; John Belcher was loaned by the GWR to the Ministry of Information, lecturing on the Soviet Union and economics; Aubrey C. Ping,2 a regular contributor to The Railway Service Journal under his pen name The Bat, was selected for special training as an administrator in countries that were to be liberated by the Allies. James McInness left the railway industry to become the National Fire Services Principal Administrative Officer for the Western Area of Scotland and later had a successful parliamentary career.
Although the Government acted quickly to take control of the railways, the financial settlement took several months to complete. Nevertheless, the terms proved to be very favourable to the companies who received £43.5 million p.a. as from 1st January 1941, with all net receipts above this figure being reclaimed by the Treasury. The Labour Party was opposed to state control and endeavoured to have the railway system nationalised by placing a motion before the House of Commons on 13th February 1940 stating:
"The interests of the country would be better served, and the many problems created by the present lack of unification solved, by the establishment of a permanent national transport authority to own and control all forms of inland and coastwise transport."3
This had the support of the RCA and both Alexander Walkden and Frederick Watkins participated in the debate, but the House rejected the proposal by 186 votes to 119.
With its vast network and communication system, Britain's railways and staff played a vital role during the war. Within three weeks, seven miles of railway passenger rolling stock were converted into ambulance trains and many railway-owned steamships became hospital ships. During the first four days of the war 550,000 children were evacuated by train and London Underground to relatively safe areas of the country and in all, nearly 2½ million people were evacuated during the war with 5,600 special trains being utilised for this sole purpose.4 The freight carried by train increased by over ten million tons during the first four weeks of the war, and in the harsh weather of January 1940, with 25,000 skilled railway workers already in the armed forces, special troop and equipment trains were operating at the rate of 2,300 a month, despite 1,500 miles of lines being blocked by snow and hundreds of miles of telegraph wires being out of action. Three hundred ploughs were used to clear snow drifts up to fifteen feet deep and thousands of gallons of milk and tons of essential food supplies normally sent by road were moved by special trains to snowbound towns and villages. The tempo increased enormously during the evacuation of Dunkirk when, with little notice, between 27th May and 4th June 1940, 620 trains transported 300,000 troops from seven ports in the south-east of England.5 Railway lines and stations were continually bombed, and railway employees worked with considerable operational and engineering skill to ensure that communications functioned efficiently. The convoy system used by ships meant that large numbers of vessels arrived virtually simultaneously and despite the blackout, wagons were moved in and out of the docks at great speed. All this pressure was in addition to the railway's normal business of carrying mail, parcels, milk, fish, and thousands of other essentials, to say nothing of passengers.
Some two years prior to the war, the CP had launched a campaign for adequate air-raid shelters and this was taken up at the 1938 RCA Annual Conference. The following year, Samuel Leitch, representing Glasgow Central, supported by Bristol, carried a resolution which recognised the inadequacy of the ARP Scheme and called on the Government to provide deep bombproof shelters.6 Calls were made for London's Underground stations to be used but they were resisted by the authorities. The campaign continued and eventually 79 Underground stations were made available, with bunks for 22,800. During the air raids of 1940-1941, up to 160,000 people were accommodated at one time, and light refreshments were supplied from 124 canteen points.7 Tragically, on two nights, 8 staff and 121 of those sheltering were killed in bombing raids. In all, 181 employees of the London Passenger Transport Board were killed whilst on duty, and 1,867 injured.8
Understanding was quickly reached between the trade unions and management that no National Agreements would be changed without consultation, and on 6th October 1939, it was decided that, from the outbreak of war, the pay received by railway employees serving with the forces would be brought up to full railway pay. The same arrangement also applied to those engaged on full-time civilian defence. Railway clerks over the age of 259 were "Reserved" i.e. not conscripted, although they could apply to their respective companies for release. The Government's man-power scheme of December 1941 included a provision to transfer women from the railways to other industries but the RCA pointed out that this was ill-advised and it was dropped. The companies undertook to release women, up to the age of 30, who wished to leave for military duties; some joined the forces without permission, putting in jeopardy their return to the railway industry after the war. Junior clerks, some under the age of 18, were offered positions as porters, signalmen and shunters, as an alternative to being drafted under the National Service Act. Those that accepted were paid at the rate of their new post, with no guarantee that they would be reinstated as clerks when hostilities ended. Others went to work in the mines, and even though there was a drastic shortage of labour on the railways, the Minister of Labour refused to allow their return, so important was the production of coal.
The 1940 Annual Conference instructed the EC to give its support and protection to members who resisted conscription on conscientious grounds and said that every effort should be made to ensure that they were reinstated.10 However, they were not guaranteed reinstatement unless they succeeded in their appeals against military service. In special cases, some conscientious objectors were exempt from war service if they remained at their railway work. The companies had no objection to this, but many employees had. Exemption was also granted if they went to work in the mines, or took up noncombative service in the forces. William Stott, who had defended many conscientious objectors in the First World War, now found himself performing a similar duty. Much as he disagreed with their point of view, he was unable to acquiesce in the way some of them were being treated.
11 James Haworth, the most prominent of the RCA conscientious objectors during 1914-1918, who had spent all of these years in Dartmoor and other prisons, eventually supported the war; it was a difficult decision, having spent most of his life campaigning for peace. Haworth now believed Nazism was the greater evil which had to be destroyed. When this nightmare has gone, we must build for our children a world of sunshine
, he said.12
The German invasion of Belgium on 10th May 1940 meant that RCA members employed by the railway companies in Brussels and Antwerp were once again in serious danger, and though many attempted to escape to the UK, only a few succeeded. Then, on 28th June 1940, the Channel Islands were bombed and invaded. The RCA had two branches on the islands, one in Guernsey the other in Jersey. All the clerical staff volunteered to remain on both islands to assist in the transfer of refugees and when the first German planes attacked Guernsey, most were on duty embarking passengers on the mail boat. Despite being in the centre of the onslaught they were fortunate to escape injury, but a docker was killed and many passengers and other employees were wounded. As the German forces landed, one member, R.H. Claybourne, escaped by using a friend's motor boat which had been out of commission for some months. After obtaining 100 gallons of petrol from a garage, Claybourne managed to get the motor working, and with four other men and eight women, set out for England. They travelled for miles without charts and were eventually picked up by a British patrol boat and taken to safety. Of the 24 Jersey members only three managed to escape, although several wives and children did so. Three members, S.J. Harris, W. Horrod and F.E. Cox, who remained in Jersey and were English by birth, were deported to a concentration camp in Germany. All RCA members and their families who managed to escape were told to contact their nearest RCA branch as soon as possible, and the union became not just an organisation to improve conditions of service, but a collection of comrades, ready and willing to help each other in all manner of difficulties. The union also helped to trace some refugees and put them in touch with their families.
Given the difficult conditions that existed throughout the war, particularly in the first year, the dedication of branch officers to the daily, somewhat mundane, business of the RCA, was quite remarkable. There is, perhaps, no better example of this than the actions of the Guernsey branch secretary, John Rhys Davies Jones, who in 1948 became the first Labour Deputy in Guernsey's Parliament. At 03.00 hours on 20th June 1940, amidst complete confusion on the island, including a run on the banks, Jones wrote to the General Secretary:
"I rendered the financial returns to June 15th yesterday, and, fortunately, the only outstanding one was in respect of members transferred here disputing transfer particulars.... It is with deep regret and a sore heart I write this letter. I have done the utmost in my power to promote the interests of the Guernsey staff during the past three or four years.... and I will seek new pastures with a sense of duty well done, even though with a sense of a loss of opportunity for service."13
Jones then said he would forward the branch books so that they would not get lost and would continue to collect the union's subscriptions. On 24th June, all the staff were told they could leave for England, but were asked to stay on for a while longer to complete shipping evacuees. Almost unanimously they volunteered to stay. The invasion commenced four days later and they were told to leave immediately. It was impossible to contact everyone, and out of a membership of 42, 10 remained in occupied territory; Jones managed to escape, taking the union's branch accounts with him. It may seem strange that in such moments of crisis submitting branch reports was a priority, but it came from years of training and had become a matter of honour.
From the days of Stopford-Challener, constant pressure was exerted to ensure that returns were on time and subscriptions up to date. Many branches had a long tradition of producing financial accounts free of arrears, month after month, year after year, but pride of place has to go to the Harwich branch, which in 1940 had 98 members, and had held an unblemished record since March 1919. This was followed by the Antwerp and Brussels branch whose accounts had been flawless since January 1922. It was not only the relatively small branches that achieved good performances; Waterloo No.1, with 492 members, had achieved a nil arrears return since 1932.
At the end of 1939 there were 2,435 members of the RCA in the armed forces, a number that increased to 22,306 by 1945 (25 per cent of the Association). As in the First World War, branches tried to keep in touch with their members and were sent copies of The Railway Service Journal. The Chiswick branch went one better, it also sent to its 114 members in the forces a printed monthly magazine called The Kitbag.14 As the war progressed, the Editor of The Railway Service Journal found that it was impossible to provide sufficient extra copies and he appealed to members to pass old journals to their branch agents for redistribution to members in the forces. It is an indication of the comradeship that existed within the Association that at one camp there were so many members of the RCA that they all got together and formed their own unofficial branch.
There is no complete record of how many RCA members were killed during the war, but up to May 1942 25 had died on active service, and 22 (of whom 3 were women) had been killed during bombing raids. The first to be killed in action was Ronald Brown, a member of the City of London branch, who joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1938 and on the outbreak of war was posted to HMS Rawalpindi. He died early in 1940 at the age of 19 when his ship was sunk. Two members of the Association's head office were killed; Flying Officer Frank Claydon,15 who had joined the staff in 1937, enrolled in the Royal Air Force. He was sent to South Africa to train as an observer and on his return, his ship was torpedoed 1,000 miles from land. He survived this ordeal and commenced bombing raids in 1943. He was killed following a raid on Germany on 14th January 1944. The other was Flight-Sergeant Arthur May who had been employed in the Despatch Department since 1934. He joined the forces in 1939 and was reported missing after an air raid on Germany in August 1943. There were 111,164 railway employees in the forces and of these, 4,900 were killed or missing. Nearly 1,300 became prisoners of war. At home, 392 railway workers were killed and 2,410 injured as a result of enemy action whilst on duty.16 More than 400 former railway workers serving with the forces were awarded honours for bravery, some by the governments of France, USSR, Poland, Greece, and the USA. In addition, hundreds of railway personnel, including many employed on railway ships, were honoured for their contribution to the war effort.
Apart from the anguish of hearing news that colleagues had been killed on active service, there were a number of deaths that shocked the RCA. Frederick Simpson died at the age of 52 in September 1939; Rowland Hill, who had established himself as a respected and popular personality without losing any sharpness of his polemical skill, died at the age of 42 in 1940. Joseph da Palma died in the same year and at the same age, just after completing his term as Mayor of Fulham.17 George Lathan died in 1942 and the vacancy at Sheffield (Park) was filled by Thomas Burden. Supported by the RCA, Burden was elected unopposed on 27th August 1942. All of these were notable personalities but it was the death of George Ridley that numbed the working class movement. He died on 3rd January 1944 at the age of 57, and was, at the time of his death, RCA Assistant Secretary, Editor of The Railway Service Journal, MP for Clay Cross and Chairman of the Labour Party. Those who attended Ridley's funeral came from all sections of the labour movement; from ordinary members of the RCA and Labour Party to Cabinet Ministers. Tributes were paid by Clement Attlee and Frederick Watkins, and his memory lives on within the Association when, every year, he is remembered by the Socialist Fellowship as its founder. For a brief period Frederick Dalley returned to produce The Railway Service Journal and then, from 1944 to 1956, Griff Morris18 was its Editor.
Just before the war the Chamberlain Government introduced a National Register of reserved occupations which received the support of the TUC and Labour Party but it was opposed by some unions, including the RCA, NUR and ASLEF, who saw it as the first step towards conscription. In January 1939, Fenner Brockway formed a No Conscription League and sixteen months later the RCA registered its own opposition to conscription. Frederick Simpson presented the case to conference and proposed:
"That whilst determined to share all the responsibilities of national defence and our international obligations, (Conference) declares its belief that all the necessary manpower could have been secured by voluntary recruitment and supports the policy of opposition adopted by the National Council of Labour."19
Simpson condemned Neville Chamberlain's foreign policy and, quoting from the Daily Worker said, We should throw all our weight on the side of peace.
20
The arguments against conscription were similar to those expressed during the First World War, but the atmosphere and political situation were totally different. When the war started the ILP published an anti-war manifesto; the CP initially gave the war its support and issued a pamphlet called How to Win the War. This had the objective of achieving victory over Fascism whilst at the same time working for the defeat of the Chamberlain Government. The CP's decision to support the war was taken after the Soviet Union signed its Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, but on the 4th October it changed its policy and came out against the war, declaring it to be imperialist and unjust. For the first eight months Neville Chamberlain remained as Prime Minister, but in May 1940 he was replaced by Winston Churchill, and the political character of the war changed; Labour was brought into the Cabinet and the trade union movement totally committed itself to the war effort. Clement Attlee was appointed Deputy-Leader; Arthur Greenwood, Minister Without Portfolio; Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Supply; Ernest Bevin became the Minister of Labour and National Service; Albert V. Alexander became First Lord of the Admiralty; Sir William Jowett, Solicitor-General and Hugh Dalton, Minister of Economic Warfare. Frederick Watkins was appointed as Private Secretary to Herbert Morrison from July 1942 to May 1945, and George Ridley was Private Secretary to Arthur Greenwood from May 1940 to February 1942. A.G. Walkden was elected to the Administrative Committee of the Parliamentary Party in 1943 and joined the Front Bench.
At the 1940 RCA Conference delegates approved the Labour Party's decision to join the Government and pledged its whole-hearted support to the national effort to organise the resources of the country and defeat the forces of aggression.
21 Stewart Purkis, on behalf of the Railway Clearing House, called for the termination of the war at the earliest opportunity and protested at the President's accusation that the CP was acting as an agent of Hitler. He reminded delegates of Churchill's role at Gallipoli22 and in the General Strike, stating Churchill was one of the ablest and astutest enemies of the working class.
Purkis then called for a Workers' Government
to continue the struggle against capitalism and Hitlerism,23 but his support was limited to a dismissive three votes.
On 12th January 1941 the CP held a People's Convention which attracted 2,234 delegates from 1,304 organisations. Of these, 153 delegates came from road and rail unions; it was, without doubt, a major political success. Criticism of the CP and the Convention flowed from the pen of George Ridley who believed that the experienced trade unionists who gave it their support had been deceived
or - as in the case of the actor Michael Redgrave - were political innocents.24 The Convention agreed eight points:
Backing for these objectives came at the RCA's 1941 Conference from the Bristol, Glasgow Southern, Coatbridge, Dundee No.1 and Chiswick branches, but very few delegates agreed with them.
When the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany on 22nd June 1941, the CP changed its policy yet again and quickly won a measure of popular support. In the next five years its membership increased to approximately 56,000. Politics changed dramatically after Hitler invaded the USSR and those members of the CP who had been deeply troubled by its earlier change of policy were relieved that the nation was now united. Japan, now an ally of Italy and Germany, launched its unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, thus bringing the United States into the war on the side of Britain and her allies. On the day that Pearl Harbour was attacked Frederick Watkins was in New York, and he made several speeches thanking the Americans for joining the allies, but much of his praise went to the Russian people who were fighting two foes simultaneously, Hitler's war machine and the terrors of the Russian winter.
25
Many former critics of the Soviet Union now saw it as a friend, and when the Marx Memorial Library published Railways and the Railwaymen in the Soviet Union by the Chairman of the RCA's Paddington branch and CP member, P.W. Kingsford BSc (Econ), it contained an introduction written by the General Secretaries of the RCA, ASLEF and the NUR. Gallie "applauded" the book as it sought to study Russian railway conditions and promote goodwill with the Soviet Union; this was a far cry from the period when George Chandler's letter on the conditions of Russian railway workers had been suppressed by the Journal's Editor in 1928. The RCA recorded its admiration of the heroic fight of the Red Army and the Russian peoples, and welcomed the declaration of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the USA and China to continue the fight for freedom and democracy.
26 At the 1942 TUC Frederick Watkins called for the setting up of an Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee27 following a visit to the Soviet Union by a TUC delegation.
Nevertheless, the RCA remained implacably opposed to the CP's affiliation to the Labour Party and supported the decision of Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, to ban the Daily Worker, following the People's Convention in January 1941. The annual conference rejected calls from left-wing branches to have the ban lifted and the EC turned down appeals from many organisations asking it to support the campaign to end the ban including one from the National Council for Civil Liberties to which the RCA was affiliated. Eventually over 800 organisations advocated the removal of the ban including the Executives of the NUR and ASLEF. At the 1942 Labour Party Conference, Percy Collick, a member of ASLEF, said There should be full scope given to any organisation that is desirous of supporting this war against Nazi and Fascist aggression.
28 George Lindgren, speaking for the RCA, opposed Collick; he attacked the Daily Worker and said that there was a lot of glib talk about freedom of the press. Lindgren won the NEC's support, but the delegates agreed, to the discomfort of Morrison, that the ban should be lifted. Shortly after the Labour Party Conference the RCA met in Edinburgh, and protests were voiced, in vain, by the Chiswick, Paddington and City of London branches against the suppression of the Daily Worker and a similar threat to the Daily Mirror. The pressure on Morrison eventually obliged him to concede. In September 1942 the paper once again appeared on the streets and its maximum permitted print of 100,000 copies was insufficient to meet demand. In 1944, the EC supported the Daily Worker when the Cabinet denied war correspondents' credentials to its reporters,29 a decision that was not revoked (again after massive public pressure) until September 1945.
An electoral truce, which had been agreed between the main political parties, was backed by a narrow majority at the 1942 Labour Party Conference, a decision supported by the RCA delegation. This was challenged when the Association met in 1943, and Glasgow Southern, (strongly under the influence of the ILP) and Liverpool No.5, called for it to be terminated and for each political party to contest every by-election, whilst retaining a National Government until the war was won.30 This failed to obtain the support of conference. At various times during the war some parties disagreed with the truce and by-elections were contested by the ILP, CP, Nationalists, Fascists and some Independents. The Common Wealth Party, which had a radical socialist programme, emerged in 1942 and contested 11 by-elections. It won 3 of these, but only in Chelmsford did it survive the Labour onslaught of 1945. Walkden was totally committed to the electoral truce and even campaigned for the Conservative Party. When a by-election was held in West Derbyshire in February 1944 he supported the Conservative candidate and stated:
"I have opposed Mr. Churchill all my life as a Labour man, but I am going to support him while the war is on. It is the only honourable and sensible thing to do and I ask you to honour the electoral truce by voting for the Government candidate."31
Walkden was severely criticised and heckled by some Labour supporters; their vote went to Alderman Charles White who had resigned from the Labour Party in protest against the truce, stood as Independent Labour, and defeated the Conservative by 4,561 votes.
The electoral truce was never a political truce and although there was some diminution in the activities of the Political Advisory Committees in London and Manchester their work continued. On 25th May 1942, a Glasgow Advisory was formed with John Ross as its chairman and Peter Bell32 its secretary. An attempt was made to form a Tyneside Political Advisory in 1945 but this was unsuccessful. In January 1945, a Merseyside Political Advisory was established with A. Hargreaves (Liverpool No.5) as its secretary. This development was a major political advance for the RCA, and when possible the Advisories worked together, exchanging ideas and producing programmes for the coming months.
During the war over 300 members of the RCA served on local authorities and in 1940 four of these were mayors in London, a number never previously achieved by any trade union. These were Joseph da Palma at Fulham; T.J. Sillitoe JP at Shoreditch; W.T. Wayman JP at Hackney and R.J. Fell at East Ham.33 RCA members also continued to play an important part in the work of Trades Councils, and in 1942, John Johnston, the Glasgow Southern Financial Secretary, was elected as Chairman of Glasgow Trades Council and George Lindgren, Chairman of London Trades Council.
Just before the war, the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) transferred its headquarters to England and for a short period utilised the RCA's head office prior to establishing itself at Kempston, Bedfordshire. ITF representatives had continued to be regular visitors at the Association's Annual Conference but the RCA's old friend Edo Fimmen was now seriously ill and had gone to Mexico. He sent a letter to the 1941 Conference explaining how disappointed he was not to be able to attend, and died a few months later, after a stroke.
The first meeting of the ITF Emergency Council was held in the summer of 1941 and most of those present had experienced, in some form or other, the horrors of Fascism. Ben Tillett, a foundation member of the ITF, was invited as a guest. The British delegation was composed of J. Marchbank (NUR); C. Jarman (National Union of Seamen); A. Deakin (TGWU) and Charles Gallie, who had succeeded William Stott as RCA General Secretary in 1940. Gallie was elected to the ITF Emergency Council.
Shortly after the war had commenced those continental seafarers who had managed to bring their ships to Britain formed a trade union known as the B.D.D.F. (Belgian, Danish, Dutch and French seamen); later this union embraced Polish seamen and became the B.D.D.F.P. It operated under the auspices of the ITF and when it was dissolved in 1945, its officers presented a Memorial to the RCA recording their gratitude for the assistance extended to them in 1940. They especially thanked the National Union of Seamen for its help and the Railway Clerks' Association for providing a home for them at its headquarters, thus enabling them to carry on their work until the final triumph of the United Nations brought freedom back to Europe and enabled them to return to their own countries.
This Memorial was placed in the office of the Association's General Secretary.
Throughout the war the ITF continued to assist workers who were organising sabotage in occupied countries. They co-ordinated their efforts with the International Metal Workers' Federation and the International Mineworkers' Federation and it was a member of the RCA, Ian Milner, who was secretary of their Joint Council. In September 1943, an International Railwaymen's Conference was organised by the ITF with representatives attending from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Luxembourg, India, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, USA, USSR and Yugoslavia. Frederick Dalley, Jim Haworth, Frederick Tonge and Dan Wilson34 represented the RCA. With the majority of these nations now under the control of Fascism, messages of solidarity were broadcast to continental railway workers direct from the conference in French, German and Italian. Resolutions were carried at the conference demanding that railway workers throughout the world be represented, through the ITF, at all peace conferences and reconstruction meetings that dealt with transport matters.35
There were two General Elections in Éire during the Second World War. The first, in 1943, was set against the background of dissatisfaction at the Government's policies and shortages arising from the war. O'Farrell stood as a candidate in the Dublin County constituency, coming tenth, and failing to win one of the five seats under the electoral system of proportional representation. Martin O'Sullivan was more fortunate; he was elected for North-West Dublin, joining William Davin in Dáil Éireann. The second election took place in May 1944, after the Fianna Fáil Government had been defeated on a Transport Bill by 64 votes to 63. During the election the Labour Party was divided as the ITGWU and five Labour members in Dáil Éireann had resigned to form the National Labour Party. William O'Brien, General Secretary of the ITGWU, accused the Labour Party of having allowed and encouraged the admission of active members of the CP into the Party;36 this was denied and the Labour Party said that its constitution had been framed to exclude the possibility of Communists or members of similar organisations from being members.37 The Chairman of the Labour Party, James Hickey, a member of the ITGWU, resigned, and William Davin was elected in his place, a position he retained at the next annual conference. Both Labour groups lost five seats in the 1944 General Election but William Davin and Martin O'Sullivan were returned to Dáil Éireann. O'Sullivan remained there until 1951, when he was finally defeated.
When the Dáil reassembled, the Fianna Fáil Government reintroduced its Transport Bill which proposed transferring the Great Southern Railways Company and the Dublin United Transport Company into Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE). The Labour Party and the Irish TUC challenged the Bill, and suggested that all such transport should be operated by a publicly owned National Transport Board with a Consultative Committee composed of representatives of various interests, including employees. J.T. O'Farrell was the main spokesperson on behalf of a joint trade union campaign that opposed the Bill, and at the Mansion House, Dublin, a rally of over 2,000 railway workers voiced their objections. The Bill contained many clauses that were perceived to be against the interests of employees, and Martin O'Sullivan, together with William Davin and M.J. Keyes, the NUR representative in the Dáil, ensured that the Labour Party tabled 32 amendments. Many of these covered pension rights, trade union recognition, compensation in the event of dismissal and other such items for the protection of staff. A large number of these amendments were in the names of Davin, Keys and O'Sullivan.
The campaign achieved positive results and never before had a Bill been so drastically amended in the interests of working people. This success was tempered by the fact that the controlling authority remained in private hands. The Board consisted of a chairman, appointed by the Minister, and directors appointed by the holders of Common Stock. The chairman alone constituted a quorum and no meetings could be held in his absence, nor could any decision of the Board be agreed without his approval. The chairman, in effect, had total control of the company. The CIE came into operation on 1st January 1945 with 18,500 employees, but financial problems continually dogged its progress and in 1950 it was nationalised. The composition of its Board was changed and J.T. O'Farrell, who had been retired for two years, was made a member. As O'Farrell had been elected as a Senator in 1948 he was obliged to resign from Seanad Éireann; he continued as a member of the CIE Board until the end of 1967, when he had reached the age of 79.
The onset of war did not stop the RCA from carrying out any of its normal union activities. Recruitment campaigns were pursued, with the result that membership increased from 64,389 in 1939 to 89,409 in 1945, surpassing the record established in 1920. At the beginning of the war the RCA had established itself as a significant force but even though it had been recognised by the railway companies since 1919, this did not mean that the Association was accepted by related companies. On the contrary, virtually every attempt at recognition was, and still remains, a constant battle of opposing industrial and ideological forces.
At the end of the First World War efforts had been made to recruit staff employed by Messrs. Wordie and Co. Ltd, carting contractors based in Scotland. These largely failed but when the LMS Railway became a major partner during 1936, approximately 70 per cent of the clerical and supervisory staff joined the Association. A branch of the RCA was opened at Wordie's Glasgow head office in 1937, but all appeals requesting recognition were rejected. An ultimatum was issued to the management stating that unless full recognition was granted by 17th December 1938, strike action would be taken. As a result, the RCA was formally acknowledged by the company on 1st January 1939.
The fight for recognition at David MacBrayne Ltd was of a political rather than an industrial character. The RCA had steadily built up its membership at MacBrayne since 1928 when the LMS first invested in the company. From 1937, when it had 76 of the 104 clerical staff in membership, the RCA continuously sought recognition. In February 1939 the EC launched a campaign and over 5,000 Scottish RCA members wrote to their MPs asking for their support. This was designed to coincide with a debate in the House of Commons on 7th February, when Parliament sought to finalise details of a transport and mail contract between the Government and MacBrayne Ltd. Frederick Watkins intervened in the debate and told Leslie Burgin, the Minister for Transport:
"Our members complain that they are not receiving the benefits of the Fair Wage Clause and are denied the right of trade union protection and negotiation....In this case, as in many other cases, it seems as though the employers regard trade unionism as something appropriate for manual labourers but not appropriate for what are unusually called black-coated workers. We say that black-coated workers have as much right to the protection of a Fair Wages Clause as have seamen, lorry drivers or any other group of workers.[...] the Railway Clerks' Association is the appropriate trade union for these members to join and to represent them in negotiations with their employers."38
The Minister responded by saying that he understood the subject would be discussed by MacBrayne's Board of Directors, but recognition was again denied. The RCA then asked for a meeting with the Minister for Labour who gave the Association a sympathetic hearing; pressure was gradually brought to bear, but it was not until 1st August 1940 that recognition was finally agreed.
Parliament was the setting for another important struggle for the union. The company concerned was Messrs Pickford Ltd39 where, from 1935 onwards, a small number of RCA members had managed to establish themselves. They gradually built up their numbers but here, too, recognition was refused. Matters came to a head in 1942 when the Railway Companies (Thomas Cook & Sons Ltd Guarantee) Bill, was brought before Parliament by the four railway companies. Their intention was to acquire Thomas Cook through Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd, but the RCA MPs, along with NUR colleagues, gave notice that they intended to block the Bill. The railway companies became alarmed and held discussions with the RCA and NUR MPs. They were told, in no uncertain terms, that the MPs would continue to hold up the Bill until recognition was established. Within a matter of hours negotiations commenced and on Monday 11th May 1942, just before the Bill was due for its Second Reading, Pickford Ltd. agreed to recognise the RCA, NUR and TGWU.
The railway's acquisition of Thomas Cook and Sons Ltd, also opened up new prospects for the RCA and in July 1942, a branch was opened in London. The majority of Thomas Cook's clerical and managerial staff joined the Association and recognition was achieved in February 1943. Within six years it was the largest branch, having 1,500 members; two thirds of these were based at their head office, with others employed throughout Europe and as far away as Kenya, South Africa and India.
These encounters with management, significant though they had been, were as nothing compared with the Association's efforts to secure recognition for a growing group in the railway family, the Professional and Technical (P&T) staff. When recognition had been won in 1919, the RCA assumed that it included P&T staff. However, when the agreement was subsequently negotiated, they were specifically excluded by management, as their duties were too diversified and individual to permit of classification.
40 Very few P&T employees had joined the RCA at this stage, nevertheless the EC produced a programme, only to be told that management could not negotiate solely with the RCA as other unions had an interest. No progress was made and management used the same argument in 1921 when P&T staff were excluded from the Negotiating Machinery set up under the Railway Act.41
Management's claim that other unions would have to be involved in the negotiating machinery was merely a device to exclude P&T staff from collective bargaining. The only other union that had members within the P&T Grades was the AESD. The RCA had always had a good relationship with the Draughtsmen's Union and in 1924 an agreement was reached that AESD members could join the RCA by the payment of 10 shillings (50p) per annum. Members of the RCA who took up employment as draughtsmen outside the railway service could be transferred to the AESD on payment of 7s 6d (37.5p). A Joint Advisory Committee was established to consider matters of policy and it was agreed that the RCA would negotiate on behalf of all railway draughtsmen. In 1925, the Advisory Committee produced a programme which the RCA presented to the railway companies. They responded by asking for proof that the two unions had the backing of the majority of P&T staff; unfortunately very few employees were willing to sign a Memorial indicating their support for either union.
No progress was made but management was, to some extent, willing to discuss cases of individual members, or indeed groups of members. By 1935 there was a revival of interest and a consultative conference of P&T members was held the following year. A new programme received the approval of annual conference but management continued to insist that the RCA did not speak for the majority of the P&T staff. As a result all forms of unofficial co-operation ceased. Recognition was constantly raised with management and the 1941 Annual Conference recorded its strong dissatisfaction with the attitude of the railway companies for refusing to negotiate with the RCA in respect of special class staff and those in the P&T Grades.42 In September, Charles Gallie was told by the Chairman of the REC that it was prepared to concede limited recognition; by this he meant in respect of individuals or groups of members, for the sole purpose of discussing complaints or grievances which had not been resolved through their own immediate management structure. It was, in fact, a formalisation of the unofficial position that had existed prior to 1936. By 1942, P&T branches had been opened at Glasgow, Horwich, Darlington, Crewe, Swindon, Doncaster, York, Derby, Eastleigh and London. In May 1943, Gallie submitted to the Railway Staff Committee proposals for improved salary scales and conditions of service but management still insisted on proof that both unions had a majority of P&T staff in membership, plus a majority in each of the 16 groups. A minimum rate of pay was agreed but management refused to discuss any grade which had a salary above £360 p.a. At this stage approximately 3,600 P&T employees were paid up to £650 p.a. and of these, the RCA had in membership 2,200; it was now ready to take up the challenge.
On 20th June 1944, all 5 RCA sponsored MPs successfully delayed the implementation of two Private Bills submitted by the LMS and when the Minister of Transport intervened he was told they were not prepared to budge on so important a principle until the railway managements abandoned their attitude.43 No agreement had been reached by the day the Bills were scheduled for their Second Reading. In the meantime, Alexander Walkden had secured the backing of the Parliamentary Labour Party, and Charles Gallie had written to every RCA branch, asking members to contact their MP and support the Association's case. When the debate took place on 5th July, Frederick Watkins proposed that the Bills should be deferred for a further six months; he was supported by Thomas Burden and Walkden. It soon became obvious that the Commons wanted to see both Bills approved and recognition granted to the RCA. When the debate was adjourned, it was with the clear expectation of the parties reaching an agreement. This was not to be, and when Gallie met the general managers of the railway companies on 12th July, he was far from satisfied.
The debate was scheduled to resume on 20th July and in the intervening period Gallie asked every MP to reject the LMS Bills if the company continued to refuse recognition. Gallie also saw Arthur Greenwood, the acting leader of the Labour Party, and told him that failure to win would imply that every employer could argue that Parliament considered that all those in receipt of more than £360 p.a. were outside the scope of trade union recognition. One hour before the debate commenced an offer was made to the RCA that the principle of negotiating salary scales for those paid between £360 and £600 should be placed before the RSNT. This was immediately rejected and F.C. Watkins proposed:
"This House declines to proceed with the Second Reading of the Bill until the L.M.&S Railway Company concedes trade union recognition to the professional and technical sections of its employees."44
George Mathers and Frank Anderson also participated in the debate and eventually Sir Edward Cadogan,45 said that the companies would accept the certificate of the Minister of Labour confirming that the Railway Clerks' Association was representative of a substantial number of the grades in question. Frank Anderson asked Cadogan if this statement implying recognition had the authority of the railway companies or the REC and was told that it came from the railway companies.46 Frederick Watkins then withdrew his proposal and the two LMS Bills were given a Second Reading.
Recognition was now considered to be established, but the euphoria generated amongst P&T members quickly evaporated. When they met the railway companies, the management qualified their views. In response Gallie called a P&T National Conference for 11th November and this was attended by 34 delegates, one of whom was a woman. With the P&T members now in a fighting mood Gallie made arrangements for the LMS Bills to be "blocked" on their Third Reading - a somewhat unusual procedure. Pressure was brought to bear but the RCA refused to be moved and the companies backed down. The Bills had their Third Reading and recognition was achieved at the end of November.
Apart from Charles Gallie, two members stand out for their contribution during this period. Jack Rees, a member of the London P&T branch, who served on the EC from 1942 to 1945 and was an RCA Scrutineer from 1956-1965; and Geoffrey Collings, a member of the same branch and of the National P&T Advisory Committee. Collings wrote many articles in The Railway Service Journal during this period and in doing so, was instrumental in developing the P&T membership. The recognition of the P&T grade was a victory of considerable magnitude and it quickly led to the inauguration of many more P&T branches.
As men joined the armed forces women were once again asked to take over their duties. In 1940 the first women were employed as booking clerks on LT and by 1943 their number had grown to 500. A total of 16,500 women were working in various capacities on the Underground by the end of the war. Similar changes were taking place on the railways. Just over 25,000 women were employed by the four railway companies in 1938 of whom 12,264 were clerks. This number increased dramatically as the war progressed and as it neared its end 114,000 women were employed. Needless to say this had an impact on the RCA, resulting in a massive surge in female membership. Between the wars the percentage of women members had dropped from 19.1 per cent to approximately 5.5 per cent, but by 1944 it was 25.3 per cent.
| Year | Women | % of Members |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 | 6,839 | 10.6 |
| 1940 | 9,068 | 12.9 |
| 1941 | 15,355 | 19.6 |
| 1942 | 20,540 | 24.1 |
| 1943 | 21,843 | 24.9 |
| 1944 | 22,497 | 25.3 |
| 1945 | 21,856 | 24.4 |
| 1946 | 17,502 | 20.0 |
| 1947 | 19,044 | 21.0 |
| 1948 | 18,289 | 20.5 |
| 1949 | 17,041 | 19.7 |
| 1950 | 16,745 | 19.6 |
Throughout the war there was a huge turnover of members which affected the composition of branch committees but although women played a vital role, election to senior positions was rare. During 1942 there were approximately 5,000 members who held some form of responsibility within the Association and of these, just over 500 were women. Only 3 of the 435 branches elected a woman as "chairman"; 13 women were "vice-chairmen"; 10 branches had women secretaries and 11 had women assistant secretaries. Twenty-six women were organising secretaries, with 450 acting as collectors and committee members. By July 1945 the number of women elected to official positions had increased to 700. Men still dominated the annual conference even though women's representation had advanced significantly. An analysis of women's attendance at conference up to 1940 is given in Table 6. In 1941 17 women were present and two years later their number reached a war-time peak of 63. In 1945 their number decreased to 37 and four years later it was only 25.
Regardless of the unfavourable conditions women's weekend schools were organised throughout the war by several Divisional Councils. Even heavy raids on London in 1942 failed to stop the five London Councils holding a joint women's school which 50 members attended. A special women's conference was held at Leeds on 22nd June 1941 with over 100 present. This was opened by Frederick Watkins who said that the Executive wanted to know what women members were thinking and what their grievances were.47 The long-standing demand for a woman to be appointed to deal with the problems of women clerical workers was raised and the General Secretary announced that this would be considered when any vacancies arose. Actually women had been employed at the Association's head office since 1915 occupying positions related to typing or general duties. An opportunity to change this arose when Frank Claydon, who was employed in the LNER section as a clerk, left to join the Royal Air Force. Charles Gallie, true to his word, appointed Mary Longhorn, who had joined the staff as a shorthand typist in 1939, to Claydon's post on the male rate of pay
48 - the first occasion that equal pay had been granted within the Association. Mary Longhorn not only covered all Frank Claydon's duties but was also in great demand as a speaker at weekend schools.
Another Women's Conference took place on 4th October 1942 at Weston-super-Mare and this was attended by 69 delegates representing all the Association's Divisional Councils. The conference discussed a range of issues, and high on the agenda was the question of equal pay. This had been granted to some women within the Conciliation Grades as early as 1940 and the case was made for clerical staff when the General Secretary met the RSNT on 16/17th February 1942. Gallie said that he was addressing a new principle as far as salaried staffs are concerned, and that is where women clerks who are performing duties similar in character and value to male clerks, they should be paid in accordance with the male clerical staff agreement.
49 Two months later, at the 12th annual conference of Unions Catering for Women, a motion on equal pay was placed on the agenda by the RCA. Eveline Hugill spoke in this debate but, by then, she knew that the RSNT had turned down their claim. Thousands of women railway clerks were disappointed at the Tribunal's decision and with 95 per cent of women in the lowest clerical grade, the campaign continued. In 1944 the EC decided that the workload of Eveline Hugill, who was the Women and Girl Clerks' representative on the EC, had became too heavy and a further woman's seat was allocated, enabling Muriel R. Luntz, a member of the Westminster branch, to join the Executive.
Despite the progress that women had made in the trade union movement, their representation at the TUC and Labour Party Conferences was minimal. Criticism can be levelled at the RCA that women were also under represented, but throughout the war the RCA had a record second to none. In 1939, one woman, Betty Lamont, represented the Association at the TUC, then, from 1940 to 1943, two women were elected to its delegation. In 1944 the RCA provided more women delegates than any other union. These were Eveline Hugill, Betty Lamont, Muriel Luntz and Ethel Chipchase.50 By 1945 the membership of the TUC consisted of 5,234,925 men and 1,340,729 women. Of the 754 delegates to the TUC that year, 726 were men and 28 were women. The RCA, with women forming a quarter of its membership, had 3 women in its delegation of 18; only one other union, the Tailors and Garment Workers, reached this figure and they had 81,000 women members. Women's representation at the Labour Party was even worse. The RCA failed to elect a woman to its Labour Party delegation until 1945, when M.R. Luntz and Betty Lamont represented the Association; this number was equalled only by two other unions and bettered by one, the TGWU.
Throughout the difficult years of the 1930s a positive relationship existed between the three main railway unions but they still retained differences on the thorny subject of one union for railway workers. This was raised once again in 1942 when the NUR Annual General Meeting agreed that the other railway unions should be approached. John Marchbank, the General Secretary of the NUR, wrote to ASLEF and the RCA at the end of August requesting a meeting. The RCA gave the matter serious consideration, but the outcome was inevitable. When Gallie responded on 13th October he turned down the offer of amalgamation, but proposed that a Railwaymen's Joint Council be formed to replace the informal machinery of joint EC meetings that already existed. Both ASLEF and the NUR accepted Gallie's suggestion and the first meeting took place at Unity House on 12th January 1943. On 25th March a constitution was agreed, with the Joint Committee being composed of the President, General Secretary and four representatives from each of the three unions; its chairmanship was to be held in rotation by the respective Presidents. The committee's main objective was to create maximum unity on all matters of common interest, particularly important issues of negotiation and legislation affecting railways and railway workers. It was the perfect forum and was exactly the machinery that the RCA had been seeking for over twenty-five years. When the 1943 RCA Conference assembled one of its tasks was to ratify the establishment of the Joint Committee, and Gallie told the delegates that it was a historic step forward in railway trade unionism.51 It could not have been more accurately put and the recommendation was carried unanimously.
Fraternal messages had been exchanged between the rail unions during their annual conferences over many years, a custom that still exists. With the formation of the Joint Council, greetings now came in person. The President of the NUR, Frederick Burrows, attended the 1944 Conference and told delegates that their friendship was not a paper unity
52 and that a strong relationship had developed between the two unions. He also took the opportunity to thank the RCA for not entering a pay demand at that stage, as it was supporting the NUR's claim for an improvement in pay for the lowest paid in the railway service. Later that year, the President of the RCA, Percy Morris, attended the NUR conference, and in 1945, the fraternal delegate from the NUR was its new General Secretary, John Benstead. This conference was also the first occasion when a representative from ASLEF attended. Its President, Frederick Sharman, spoke positively of the new relationship between the unions but he surprised the majority of his audience when he announced that he had changed his political allegiance from the Labour Party to the Communist Party.
The National Joint Committee survived the war but not the peace. When the TUC General Council published its report on Trade Union Structure and Closer Unity in 1945 it advocated that spheres of influence
should be recognised in railway trade union organisation, and that inter-union rivalry for seats on Sectional Councils should cease. The NUR opposed this, whilst the RCA and ASLEF gave it their support. By 1947 the differences between ASLEF and the NUR had become so bitter that ASLEF refused to co-operate with the NUR53 and the National Joint Committee collapsed.
The cost of living increased sharply between 1939 and 1945 in Britain and Ireland and with the railway unions working closely together pay increases were achieved every year.
| Date | Men p.a. £ | Juniors p.a. £ | Women p.a. £ | Juniors p.a. £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st January 1940 | 10.00 | 5.00 | 7.80 | 3.90 |
| 3rd June 1940 | 8.00 | 4.00 | 5.85 | 3.25 |
| 6th January 1941 | 10.00 | 5.00 | 7.80 | 3.90 |
| 24th June 1942 | 13.60 | 6.80 | 9.75 | 4.55 |
| 26th April 1943 | 14.70 | 5.85 | 11.70 | 5.85 |
| 17th April 1944 | 13.00 | 6.50 | 13.00 | 6.50 |
| 30th July 1945 | 6.50 | 3.25 | 6.50 | 3.25 |
| Aggregate Increase | 75.80 | 36.40 | 62.40 | 31.20 |
Pay increases in Éire were more complex and were regulated under the Emergency Powers Orders which lasted from 1941 to September 1946. The only method by which increases could be secured was for the RCA to apply to the Minister for a "Standard Rate Order", which, when conceded, had the effect of establishing as the "Standard Rate" the old basic rate plus any bonus already in operation. Any application for a new Bonus Order would again have to go to the Minister, after agreement between the employer and the trade union. The Minister then dealt with the application or passed it to the Irish Railways Wages Board. After an agreement had been reached, the Minister still had the power to endorse, amend or reject the Board's decision. As these regulations did not apply to Northern Ireland, the salary paid to those employed in the companies that ran trains across the border complicated the wages structure even further. In 1943, the Emergency Bonus was restricted to 11 shillings (55p) per week for adults, and half that amount for juniors. Apart from these bonuses, no increase in basic rates was permitted, even though the cost of living index rose by 71 per cent between August 1939 and May 1945, considerably more than in the UK.
One of the most important tasks for the RCA had always been to have its members elected to the committees of the various superannuation funds and to secure adequate benefits for its members. As noted in Chapter 4 the majority of the funds had been established by 1906. In 1912, the Omnibus, Railway, Tramway and Equipment Companies' Staff Superannuation Fund was established and by 1936 it had approximately 3,000 members. Protracted negotiations with the London Passenger Transport Board eventually led to the introduction of a new scheme in 1937. It was known as the London Transport (Administrative and Supervisory) Staff Superannuation Fund and was managed by an equal number of elected representatives of the contributing members and nominees of the Board; under the new arrangement its membership immediately increased to 5,000.
When the railway companies were merged into four groups in 1921, it was expected that provision would be made for the amalgamation of all their existing funds. The Minister of Transport, Sir Eric Geddes, indicated that this was impossible, but later, at a meeting between representatives of the companies and the RCA, under the chairmanship of the Transport Minister's Parliamentary Secretary, an understanding was reached that amalgamation of the funds would take place at an early date. This was undoubtedly a delaying manoeuvre; nothing changed, and several funds continued to exist, with varying rates of contributions and diverse scales of benefits. These funds were of considerable value to the companies as the bulk of their assets was loaned to them at various rates of interest. The seventeen funds for railway salaried staff had seen their accumulated capital grow from £10,466,827 in 1913 to £18,077,970 in 1922; there were, at this time, 120,664 contributors and 9,903 people receiving pensions.54
The RCA agitated in each of the new railway groups for their superannuation schemes to be standardised; the first group to co-operate was the LMS, and negotiations began in 1923. With the assistance of the Labour Party, and in the face of opposition from 300 MPs, all the old schemes within the LMS were successfully amalgamated into a new Fund which commenced in October 1924. Throughout the 1920s the RCA had also been pressing for a superannuation fund to be established by the Manchester Ship Canal. In 1920 the company had submitted to Parliament a General Powers Bill which contained an entirely unsatisfactory clause on superannuation, and, following pressure from the RCA, the clause was withdrawn after the Bill was blocked by Ben Tillett,55 the MP for North Salford. The RCA continued to press the company and eventually it passed another General Powers Bill to Parliament in 1925. On this occasion it included two clauses that would have empowered the company to set up, as they deemed fit, a scheme that gave the directors full authority to admit or exclude any sections of the staff, to make deductions from salary and to frame benefits, all without consulting the employees. An RCA petition to block the Bill forced the company to give an undertaking that it would enter into negotiations prior to the Bill reaching the House of Lords. The petition was withdrawn but the company showed little interest in fullfilling its obligations, and the Association was once again forced into action. The Bill was approved by the Lords, but only on the understanding that in the next session of Parliament the company would promote a new Bill that contained a superannuation scheme. In fact it was not until 1927 that it finally came to fruition.
The LMS Scheme was acknowledged by everyone as the best Superannuation Fund achieved so far but it was not until January 1928 that any further progress was made on the railways, when the Southern Railway Fund was started. The GWR refused to take similar steps, and when the LNER attempted to establish a fund in 1924 without having previously consulted the Managing Committees, members of the existing funds, or the staff representatives, the RCA petitioned Parliament in protest. This led to H.G. Romeril meeting R.L. Wedgwood, the General Manager of the LNER, and they agreed that the committees of the various funds and the officers of the company would discuss the best way forward. Nothing positive was achieved; frustrated at the lack of progress, delegates at the RCA's 1936 Annual Conference decided to make one more effort to reconstruct the funds even if it meant increasing their contribution to 4 per cent. This did not bring the desired result, but Parliamentary pressure was brought to bear and eventually negotiations were concluded. The LNER Railway (Superannuation) Fund Act received Royal Assent on 25th May 1939 and the fund commenced on 1st July 1939. Further Parliamentary pressure led to the Great Western Superannuation Fund becoming operative on 1st July 1941. The Railway Clearing House Superannuation Fund, which encompassed several railway companies, had been originally launched in 1873. When negotiations were completed with the RCA for its new fund, which became operative on 30th June 1941, women were included in the scheme for the first time. In the twenty years of negotiation taken to set up these Funds, Frederick Dalley undertook the majority of the workload.
As 1943 began news of Hitler's final solution to the Jewish problem
appeared in The Railway Service Journal56 giving details of torture, mass extermination by gas, and special squads. A resolution at the 1943 TUC condemned the German nation
for the inhuman crimes it had committed in occupied countries and in particular against the Jewish race. The RCA objected to the assumption that the German people and the Nazis were one and the same, and James Haworth, in a speech broadcast that evening on the radio,57 carried an amendment which deleted German nation
and placed the blame on those truly responsible - the Nazis.
The full horror of Nazi persecution in Europe was revealed when Soviet troops advanced through Eastern Europe to join their allies in Germany. Victory was declared on 8th May 1945, when Germany surrendered unconditionally and acknowledged the complete defeat of its war machine. Freedom returned to the Channel Islands and on 13th August 1945, as soon as travel was allowed, a delegation from the RCA composed of EC member J. A. Atkins58 and the GW Line Secretary, W.J.P. Webber, set off to Jersey. When they berthed there was an emotional reunion and, to their delight, they found that in the short period since liberation, both Jersey and Guernsey branches had been reformed with 100 per cent membership!
Belgium had been liberated on 2nd September 1944 and contact was immediately made by letter with those RCA members who had been unable to escape. Delays in transport were inevitable and it was not until 23rd October 1945 that the first boat to carry passengers to the continent set sail from Folkestone to Ostend. On board were EC member A.E. Graves59 and Alfred Sams, the LNE Line Secretary. They were met in Antwerp by the long-standing Secretary of the Brussels and Antwerp branch, Eugène Maes. He immediately dug up a tin containing the branch accounts and £2, together with some postage stamps, that he had buried in his garden for safe keeping. From Maes they learnt of the part that he, A. Depoorter (the founder of the branch) and his brother, together with their families, had played in the underground resistance movement. It was an emotional meeting, filled with sadness and yet great pride. Two members of the branch had been killed by flying bombs and two others, who had fled from Antwerp, had never been heard of again. Maes had lost his wife in an enemy bombing raid towards the end of the war and his son-in-law was shot for his work in the resistance. One member of the branch, G. Brouers, who had sympathised and worked with the Nazi forces, beat a hasty retreat to Germany and in December 1945 was expelled from the RCA. In an act of respect the 1945 branch committee was composed of all those who had been in office when Hitler's forces invaded Belgium.
At the 1944 RCA Annual Conference, delegates were determined that the sacrifices made by railway workers during the war, both at home and abroad, would not be in vain. They formulated proposals for the nationalisation of all public transport, with provision for employees from each section of the industry to be on management boards. Delegates were not willing to tolerate any attempt to return to the past; they declared that the people employed in the industry were entitled to the same measure of consultation in relation to the post-war organisation of the railways as those with financial interests. The EC were instructed to arrange with the NUR and ASLEF for joint representations to be made to the Minister of War Transport, Lord Leathers, asking him to declare the Government's policy for the future of transport. Representatives of the three unions, including Charles Gallie, Percy Morris and James Howarth, met Lord Leathers on 24th April 1945. Gallie presented the Association's proposals for the future of the transport industry and told the Minister that rail, road, air transport and coast-wise shipping should be owned and controlled by the state. Leathers responded by saying that as a committee was examining the whole future of transport he was unable to promise any early declaration of policy, and that it might even be necessary for the Government to retain control for a further year after the war had ended.60 When Gallie left the meeting, he was optimistic that the Minister genuinely wished to see greater co-ordination and efficiency in the transport system. Be that as it may, it was the political changes that were taking place throughout the UK that finally determined the outcome.
A World Trade Union Conference was held in County Hall, London, in February 1945. This was convened by the TUC and its Preparatory Committee included representatives from the trade union movements of the UK, USA and the USSR. The 250 delegates represented 55 trade union organisations and over 60,000,000 workers. It was a turning point in working class history, and whereas most European unions had abandoned their anti-Soviet position, this was not true of the small group that had left the Irish Labour Party and they did not attend. Also absent was the American Federation of Labour which refused to be associated with Communist-led trade unions. Charles Gallie delivered one of the papers for discussion, Immediate Trade Union Development for the Post-War Period. It covered four areas which he recommended should be pursued - Freedom from Want and Social Security; Equality of Educational and Vocational Opportunity for Men and Women; Full Employment; Public Planning and Control. When the conference concluded it set up a committee which led to the formation of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in October 1945. The RCA was a founder member of the new Federation which embraced over 65,000,000 trade unionists in 54 nations.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 quickly led to the surrender of Japan, but their use shocked many and any pleasure at the end of the war was tinged with foreboding. The Editor of The Railway Service Journal, G.M.H. Morris, wrote:
"The atomic bomb has done far more than bring about the speedy surrender of Japan. It has brought the whole world face to face with the stark reality that war in the future means mass annihilation. Governments make wars, but in a democratic world people make Governments. The responsibility of building a lasting peace rests therefore upon the people themselves."61
The use of this new weapon of mass destruction had a marked effect on the Christian belief of Percy Morris. In his Presidential address to the 1945 Annual Conference he said:
"The atomic bomb is our final warning. We have had our last chance, and if we fail to read the writing on the wall civilisation will perish from the earth... Its secret cannot, and should not, be kept from Russia, or other nations, and any attempt to do so will only create suspicion and sow the seeds of a war that will bring complete destruction and devastation throughout the world.... Eastern and Western blocs should be out of the question, and the world must be thought of in terms of an organic whole."62
[1]. Irish Labour Party Annual Report 1938.
[2]. A C. Ping (Victoria). Joined RCA 1926. Active in Socialist Fellowship. Appointed part-time Director British European Airways 1949, later joined Boards of Cyprus Airways and Gibraltar Airways. Appointed Chairman National Joint Council for Civil Aviation 1956.
[3]. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, 13th February 1940 Vol. 357 Col. 728.
[4]. British Railways And The Future GWR, LMS, LNER, SR
[5]. Facts About BR in Wartime BR Press Office.
[6]. The Railway Service Journal June 1939.
[7]. Facts About BR in Wartime BR Press Office.
[8]. A History of London Transport Vol. 2 Page 305. T. C. Barker and M. Robbins.
[9]. The "Reserved" age was later raised to 30 years. On 1st December 1941 it was again raised to 35 years for railway clerks but 25 years for stationmasters and supervisory staff.
[10]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1940 item 21.
[11]. The Railway Service Journal August 1940.
[12]. The Railway Service Journal June 1940.
[13]. The Railway Service Journal August 1940.
[14]. The Kitbag was published from 1940-1946.
[15]. Member of the Labour Party and elected to Barnet UDC. Frank Claydon's body was buried in the British Cemetery in Berlin.
[16]. The Railway Service Journal June 1946.
[17]. In 1952 a block of flats built by Fulham Council was named after J. da Palma.
[18]. G. M. H. Morris (Central and Head Office). Joined RCA 1913 and its staff in 1914. Appointed Scottish Secretary 1940, then Western Line Secretary. Journal Editor 1944-1956. Governor, Ruskin College 1951-1956.
[19]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1940 item 20.
[20]. The Railway Service Journal June 1940.
[21]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1940 item 8.
[22]. W. Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911-1915. He championed the disastrous Dardenelles campaign.
[23]. The Railway Service Journal June 1940.
[24]. The Railway Service Journal April 1941.
[25]. The Railway Service Journal June 1941.
[26]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1942 item 16.
[27]. TUC Annual Report 1942.
[28]. Labour Party Annual Conference Minutes 1942.
[29]. The Railway Service Journal February 1944.
[30]. RCA Annual Conference 1943 item 76.
[31]. Daily Herald 12th February 1944.
[32]. P. Bell JP (Glasgow North-East). Secretary of his branch, Glasgow Political Advisory, RCA Mixed Choir and Scottish Socialist Music Festival. Joined RCA staff in the Glasgow office 1946.
[33]. T. J. Sillitoe JP OBE (East London), R J. Fell (East London). W. T. Wayman JP (East London) and Treasurer Hackney Labour Party since 1926.
[34]. D. Wilson (Waterloo). Joined the RCA and Southern Railway in 1926; participated in the General Strike. EC member for South-West London Divisional Council 1939-1945.
[35]. RCA Annual Report 1944.
[36]. Irish Times 21St January 1944.
[37]. Irish Times 11th February 1944.
[38]. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, 7th February 1939 Vol 343 Col 896.
[39]. Established in approximately 1756, Pickfords is the UK's oldest road haulage firm. It was formerly owned by the four railway companies through the medium of Hay's Wharf Cartage Company Ltd.
[40]. The Railway Service Journal May 1942.
[41]. In the case of LT, P&T members were brought into the Sectional Council Machinery in 1934.
[42]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1941 item 7.
[43]. The Railway Service Journal August 1944.
[44]. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, 20th July 1944 Vol. 402 Col. 416.
[45]. Sir Edward Cadogan. Conservative MP for Bolton and Deputy Chairman GWR.
[46]. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates 20th July 1944 VoL 402 Col 430.
[47]. The Railway Service Journal July 1941.
[48]. Extract from TSSA Staff Salary Book.
[49]. The Railway Service Journal March 1942.
[50]. Ethel Chipchase MBE (Westminster). EC 1945-1948. Represented RCA at TUC Women's Conference 1948-1950 and elected to Women's Advisory Committee. First woman Secretary of London Political Advisory Committee. First RCA woman member to stand for Parliament, 1950. Joined RCA staff 1952. Appointed TUC Women's Officer 1962-1980. Member of Equal Opportunities Commission and shared the chair with the Government representative, Margaret Thatcher.
[51]. The Railway Service Journal June 1943.
[52]. The Railway Service Journal June 1944.
[53]. TSSJ July 1954. Speech by TSSA General Secretary W. J. P. Webber.
[54]. The Railway Service Journal August 1923.
[55]. B. Tillett was the Secretary and founder of the Tea Operatives' and General Labourers' Association in 1887 which became the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and Labourers' Union after London dock strike in 1889. An architect of the National Transport Workers' Federation in 1910. TUC Parliamentary Committee 1892-1904 and General Council 1921-1931. MP North Salford 1917-1924, 1929-1931.
[56]. The Railway Service Journal February 1943.
[57]. The Railway Service Journal October 1943.
[58]. J. A. Atkins JP (Exeter). EC 1943-1949.
[59]. A. E. Graves (London East No.1) EC 1942-1948.
[60]. RCA Annual Report 1945.
[61]. The Railway Service Journal September 1945.
[62]. The Railway Service Journal June 1945.
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