ASHER. Let them go to the shipyards, if they haven't any sense of gratitude! What else do they say?
TIMOTHY. That you have a contract, sir, and making millions out of it.
ASHER. What can they know about my profits?
TIMOTHY. It's just that, sir,—they know nothing at all. But they're saying they ought to know, since things is different now, and they're working for the war and the country, the same as yourself.
ASHER. Haven't I established a system of bonuses, to share my profits with the efficient and the industrious?
TIMOTHY. They don't understand the bonuses,—how you come by them. Autocracy is the word they use. And they say you put up a notice sudden like, without asking them, that there'd be two long shifts instead of three eight-hour ones. They're willing to work twelve hours on end, for the war, they say, but they'd want to be consulted.
ASHER. What business is it of theirs?
TIMOTHY. Well, it's them that has to do the hard work, sir. There was a meeting last night, I understand, with Rench and Hillman and a delegate come from Newcastle making speeches, the only way they'd get their rights would be for you to recognize the union.
ASHER. I'll never recognize a union! I won't have any outsiders, meddlers and crooks dictating my business to me.
TIMOTHY. I've been with you thirty years, come December, Mr. Pindar, and you've been a good employer to me. I don't hold with the unions—you know it well, sir, or you wouldn't be asking me advice. I'm telling you what they're saying.