MISCHIEF MAKERS CONDEMNED BY T.U.C. PRESIDENT

Grey River Argus, 7 September 1948, Page 5

MISCHIEF MAKERS CONDEMNED BY T.U.C. PRESIDENT

Unofficial Strikes Should Stop (Reuter—N.Z.P. A.) (Rec. 10.0) 'LONDON, Sept. 6 Mischief makers, who foment unofficial strikes, were condemned by Miss Florence Hancock in her Presidential address at the opening of the eightieth Trade Union Congress at Margate. “I am not going to say that unofficial stoppages of work are never justitied, but 1 am sure this Congress will condemn mischief-makers who are ever alert to magnify their grievances,” said Miss Hancock. She added that trade unionists understood that the nation’s capacity to recover depended, not only on the maintenance of ftill employment, stable wages, and increased purchasing power, but also on the success of Labour’s great new social legislation. She urged the development of the workshop machinery of joint consultation and deplored the. hostility of employers’ organisations towards the establishment of development councils. “Constant exhortations to the workers to work harder and longer, without paying attention to other factors affecting production, defeat their avowed purpose,” she said. “Propaganda in this country, and in Com-munist-controlled countries, alleging that Anglo-American policy is calculated to provoke another war, is a wicked and dangerous falsehood. There has been misunderstanding about the purpose of the proposal to form an Anglo-American advisory council. We must take every opportunity of seeing what other countries claim are superior industrial methods of production.”

British T.U.C. Supports Stabilisation LONDON, The general Council of the Trades Union Conference will recommend its membership of nearly 8,000,000 workers to back the Government’s “freeze prices, profits and wages” policy at the annual conference at Margate tomorrow. Congress quarters confidently forecast that the T.U.C. will endorse the council’s recommendation to back the Government, although possibly only after turbulent discussions. ARCHBISHOP’S ADVICE TO DELEGATES Dr Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, addressed T.U.CV delegates at a special service at Margate. He said: “The trade unions have never had such political and economic power as they have to-day. Never has the possession of that power been so dangerous or its wise exercise so difficult. Mechanical power in the old days played a very small part in human life, and political, economic and military power were, not easily concentrated into explosive acts. Now, however, the machinery of life so dominates that those who control it control the whole future of men, society and nations, and any powerholder throwing a spanner into the works may dislocate the life of the nation or the world. “I am sure you trade unions recognise your terrific responsibility. Situated as Britain is to-day—econo-mically still a long way from making both ends meet, still buying more from abroad than she can pay for, still threatened with bankruptcy which would cut down drastically not only our amenities but the' very means of subsistence —you know as well as anyone else that false moves and errors of judgment may bring disaster upon us all. Only great wisdom and the concentration of united endeavour can get us out of our trouble”.