Engineers' Wage Demands Rejected

Chronicle (Levin), 11 June 1948, Page 5

Engineers' Wage Demands Rejected

Reeeived Thursday, 8.50 p.m. LOXDOX, June lu. Employers in the British eng'ineering have rejected claims by the L.onj federation of .Shipbuilding and Enginj eering Unions for an allround increase ! of 13a weekly in tlie minimum raies j of pay. The claims aft'ect two anrl a j half inillion workers and if granted I would involve an extra expenditure oi j £1,500,000 a week. This is the first. I major wage increase deniand to be rejected by employers sinee Ihe (iovernment attempted to freeze wages and obtained a qualified acceptance from the Trades Fnion Founcil for a policv of self-denial in wage demands. Similar claims alfecting anothei quarter of a inillion workers of tui* shipbuilding industries have also been put forward but have not yet been answered by the employers. It is not yei known what action will be takou bv the f'onfederation of Engineering anit Shipbuilding Fnions, but it is expected that tlie constituent unions will be asked to decide whether they wiit make a fresh approach to the empiovI ers or invoke the proeedure of the .n ational Arbitration Tribunal. The Oonfederation is one of the most important trade union organisations 111 Britain, and any dispute between it anu the employers entails the danger or disrupting the British engineering anu shipbuilding industries.