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I j DETAILS OF IRISH STRIKE Dublin Correspondent of London Sportsman Explains Walkout. Prospects Appear Good for Settlement of Dispute Ilctwecn Stable Boys and Trainers at the Cnrragh In car Future. Blackthorn, writing in the London Sportsman of February 23, gives the following details of the strike of the stable hands at The Curragh: I have talked on the telephone this morning to a prominent Curragh trainer seeking the latest news of the strike of stable boys, and am glad to say there is every likelihood that the dispute will be satisfactorily settled within the next few days. At any rate, if it is not I have misread present indications. The boys, it appears, would be willing to settle for a wage of 0.63 weekly or. at any rate, those in the inner circle say they would although the utterances on their behalf are to the effect that there will be no compromise, and that the wages must remain at 1.SS per week. It is certain that trainers will not pay that wage, and I doubt very much if they will consent to move forward from the stand they have taken on the basis of 0 a week, but it is a hopeful outlook that tentative overtures have been made by the employees acknowledging their readiness to knock off .25 a week from the high wage which they received up to a fortnight ago. It is this information that induces me to take the strain in which I am writing. The indoor employes received ?G a week, and trainers offered them a week, but if tho outdoor men be pleased there would be no difficulty in arriving at an accommodation with those boarded and lodged by trainers. The strike was wholly regrettable, and the boys were badly advised indeed to quit their constant and far from laborious employment. My references to the strike are for two reasons first, to keep readers of The Sportsman au courant with what is passing in this country, and secondly, for the information of those English sportsmen who have horses in training at The Curragh. By the way, some newspapers are seemingly under the impression that the strike was brought about by the decision of ihe trainers to cut wages, but really that was not so. As a matter of fact, throughout last season owners of horses were grurh-bling about the cost cf racing, and they Irtid special emphasis on the charges made by trainers for preparing horses for their engagements. The trainers kept temporizing with their patrons, and by one means or another contrived to get through 1923 without effecting a scheme of economics ; however, owners became insistent that they would not face in 1924 such high costs and charges as those which prevailed in 1923. Trainers retrenched in various ways and finally, to complete their arrangements, they approached the boys to accept reduced wages. The boys declined, called a strike and so the present situation came about. Trainers have been carrying on satisfactorily, and they announce that if a settlement is not come to within a few days they intend to make permanent the measures they have temporarily adopted. They point out that, like the stableboys, they also are employees, and that their employers that is, those for whom they train being unwilling to continue to pay highly for keeping horses in training and racing them, concessions must be made. It is not at all a question of what trainers would like to do, but what they must do.
