When Costs Go Up More Wages Demanded

Chronicle (Levin), 23 July 1948, Page 2

When Costs Go Up More Wages Demanded

Received Thursdav 7 p.m. LONDON, July 25. The cost of liviug in Britain ha? fisen 2h in the £ sterling under the new sy.Htem of calculating the indox ligure. introduced in .lune, 1947. The rise has beeu sliglitly ovcr ls 2d iu the £ siin-o Ihe Government White Paper ou wages. costs and prices published iu February. The increased cost of food has lieeu thc principal factor in the rise in the cost of living. The latest increase, states the Minister of Labouv, "vvas main-ly "seasonal" and due almost entirely to the exhaustion of stocks of old potatoes and their replacement by new potatoes at higher prices. Thc announceinent of the new fall in the purchasing power of the pound sterling coiues at a timo when miJlions of organised workers are demanding big-ger pav packets to meet the increased cost of living. The biggest industrial disputo for years now before the Minister of Lubour, Mr. George Isaacs, has arisen over the claiin of 3,000,000 workers in the engineering and shipbuilding industries for pay increases that would cost about £100,000,000 yearly. Their case is that they have had no wage increase to meet the mounting cost of living.Mincrs are opening negotiations witli the Coal Board for a higher cost of living allowance based on the officia! index of retail prices. The further'rise in the cost of living, it is expected, will make it increasmgJy diflif-ult for many trade union chiefs to continue thoir support of tlie " no general increase iu wages" polie.y.