THE COTTON STRIKE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 317, 2 September 1932, Page 4

THE COTTON STRIKE

9 The strike in the Lancashire | cotton industry has come at a most inopportune time and appears likely to deliver a serious set-baek to British industry when it is on the verge of recovery. The textile trade is one of the most considerable in Britain, and its paralysis must inevitably have the most serious reactions. The remarks of his Excellency the Governor General during his recent visit to Rotorua are peculiarly appropriate in this ease. His Excellency, after making an appeal for industrial harmony in regard to the waterside workers' trouble, pointed out the extremely damaging effect of strikes at a time when the world is struggling to overcome the forces of economic adversity and when every ounce of reserve i power is required to undertake the work of rehabilitation. At this distance the merits of the textile dispute are difficult to assess, but whatever the pros and cons, the ruinous effects of strike tactics at a time like the present, cannot be too deeply deplored. The broad issues in the dispute are the employers' determination ! to enforce a reduction of wages ! and also to increase the number j of looms allotted to each opera- ; tive. Previously the mills had been working under collective agreements. When negotiations were opened for new conditions the operatives were informed that a joint conference would not be acceptable to the mill-owners unless it were agreed beforehand that a reduction of wages would be necessary. Further, any agreement arrived at was to be considered final, and was not to be referred to the unions for approval. These conditions were rejected, and the existing collective agreements were thereu.pon allowed to Iapse. Operatives who were prepared to accept a 12|per cent. reduction in wages continued in employment, with . the result that while some mills were , kept running, others perforce had to close down. Opinion l among the operatives as to whe- ! ther the employers should be | met on the terms laid down was - by no means unanimoub. On the voting 62,000 were in favour of ■ negotiations, while 78,000 were ! for a strike.. Since then the ' situation has been allowed to ! drift into a state of chaos. The ; mill-owners themselves are at sixes and sevens as to the best means of rationalising the industry, and in the opinion of The Times the crisis has reveal- . ed "a deplorable lack of leadership and co-operative action" on . both sides. A joint committee set ; up by the Cotton Trade Corporation to investigate and make recommendations concerning the reorganisation of the industry, evolved, after what we are told . were "years of hard thinking", a scheme for the elimination of rebundant plant. It was rejected, bringing about, as The Times P'ufs it, "the final defeat of the only constructive policy which has yet been placed before the 1 industry." It will thus be seen that the outlook for one of the most important of British industries is extremely serious. What . is clearly wanted is collective agreement among the owners, : and similar arrangements be- ■ tween the owners and the opera- ' tives. "Rafferty rules" will not do in modern industry.