Trades Union Problems In Britain

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1948, Page 8

Trades Union Problems In Britain

The annual conference of the Trades Union Congress, which begins on Monday next, at Margate, has some more than usually responsible decisions to make. In preparation for the conference, the union’s views on workers’ control in the newly nationalised industries, the continuing wages prices and profits problem, food subsidies and, not the least important, the improveemnt of productivity—are among the subjects discussed in the annual report of the general council of the T.U.C., just publishecl. Control of the nationalised industries is the newest of these questions to engage general attention. The General Council has reconsidered the resolutions paissedj at the last conference in favour of union participation in the management of the nationalised industries and now reaffirms its opposition to the unions’ being directly represented on the management boards. Such participation, the council maintains, would compromise the Unions in their relations with both the boards and their own members. Different qualities also, it points out, are required for holding office in industry and in trade unions. At the same time the council holds that the trade union members who are always appointed to nationalised industry boards on a part time basis should participate fully in general policy and not act only as labour advisers. It is of interest to note that the T.U.C. general council has raised with Sir Stafford Cripps the fact that the Government appointed unionists to the court of the Bank of England without consulting the T.U.C. The Government’s answer is that the bank’s special position forbids! the taking of any risk that the directors shpuld be regarded as representing sectional interests. The whole question of how the nationalised industries shall be run is now being discussed by the Government with the T.U.C. The forthcoming conference will give interesting indications of general feeling and response to' T.U.C. leadership. The T.U.C. general' council argues the best way for the workers to take part in management is to ensure that they have plenty of opportunities to fit themselves for responsibiliy and to ’ attain promotion. For this reason the T.U.C. lays great emphasis on adequate education and training for management both by its own and other voluntary agencies, and by the public services. The T.U.C. is also anxious to develop the new consumers’ councils provided foi’ in the nationalisation Acts. Union leaders are much preoccupied with the basic problems involved in running large State monopolies on an economic basis. This leads on to wages and prices policies which the T.U.C. has been discussing with the Government. The views of Sir Stafford Cripps in answer to the T.U.C. deputation as given in the report, are an interesting indication of the Government’s views on this critical problem. Much depends on good harvests throughout the world this year. Meanwhile the Government has been keeping down controlled prices by increases in subsidies which they hope will be temporary. By keeping subsidies slightly above last year’s level they have been maintaining stability on the whole. The retail price index which was 106 in March 108 in April and 110 in June declined to 108 in July. Sir Stafford therefore expects the present subsidy policy to be more effective than had been thought. The- T.U.C. council continues to. stress, however, that the real value of wages and of social services depends on high output. This basic fact it says, is now generally appreciated by the trade union movement. Of 87 resolutions on the agenda, at least a score show the preoccupation of trade unionists with problems of prices, profits and wages. These are not the only questions of policy and organisation raised on the agenda. There are other resolutions which show trade union interest in carrying out laws concerning industrial conditions and the standards of life and employment passed by the present Parliament. One group of resolutions expresses anxiety to see more rapid progress in setting up development councils under the Industrial Organisation and Development Act. Others assert, in strong terms, the workers’ claim to greater participation in the control of nationalised industries. But the trade unions obviously want Congress to exajnine realistically the implications of. a policy of stabilising personal incomes and regulating prices and profits as well as wages and salaries/ Many of the resolutions on this question have been read as implying criticism of the Trades Union Congress—not yet published—on why it summoned a special conference of trade Union executives earlier in the year, and got the union to accept wage pegging during present trade and economic difficulties.

Attitude on Wages The genei’al council .defends its attitude on the wages question on the grounds that it is a problem which cannot be considered as something distinct, from Britain’s, other economic difficulties. It believed that the interests of the trade unions are oest served by a policy of real wages rather than money wages. It .points out that the . value of money in the wage packet has been kept steady by keening the cost of living steady. It reminds the unions that then, members, and the families of working people generally have suffered less than the people of most countries from the hardships of a rising cost of living. The economic policy of the United Kingdom Government has kept the perils of inflation ata distance. The general council takes pride in the fact that only a tiny and contemptible' minority of the people dables in the black market. From all these circumstances the

Trade Union Congress drew the conclusion that it is up to trade unionists to co-operate in maintaining their standard of life by self-discipline. These are the arguments with which the delegates at Congress will be asked to continue to support this policy of self-restraint in the matter of wages. This does not mean that the upward movement of wages is to be halted by Government decree. As a matter af fact the level (f wages in Britain continued to rise in the first half of the present year. About 3,250,000 wage earners in the first six months of this year received increases in their aggregate wages amounting to approximately £1,000,000. This seems like a contradiction of the Government’s policy of stabilisation. It was, however, to be remembered that the cost of living has been moving up too. At the end of June the official cost-of-living index figure vras 10 per cent, higher and the average level of weekly wage rates six per cent, higher than at the beginning of the year. The essential point of many of the resolutions on the Congress; agenda is sharpened by this fact; which really goes, of course, to emphasise the validity of the T.U.C. contention that a devaluation of real wages by the rising cost of living, cannot be prevented by merely increasing the size of the wage packet.

Development Councils There are important resolutions on the Congress agenda urging a speeding up of Britain’s industrial organisation by the establishment of development councils, and by using the practical experience of workers in industry by giving them, through their unions, fuller representation in the administration of industry. Here, too, the T.U.C. general council will be in a position to place before Congress evidence that progress is being made in extending rhe machinery for joint consultation between workers and 1 management under the guidance of the Ministry of Labour. Officials of the Ministry have been in contact with the national organisations of both employers and workers in 54 industries and have drawn their attention to the recommendations endorsed by the T.U.C., the United Kingdom Government and the British Employers Confederation, to set up joint consultative machinery where it does not already exist. The Ministry s inquiries have made it clear that 38 of the main industries of Britain have already given joint consideration to this recommendation. In more than a score of these. industries new arrangements are being introduced or existing arrangements developed to provide suitable machinery for joint consultation. Admittedly, the setting up of development councils under the Act has been slow. It is likely to be stimulated, however, by the implementation of the HoffmanCripps proposal to establish an AngloAmerican Industrial Council. It is too soon to say anything about the composition and functions of this proposed body. It can, however, be said that consultations are now going on between the representatives of both sides of industry in Britain, and the administration of the European Recovery Programme.