The Building Trade in England.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 10, 1 June 1920, Page 810

The Building Trade in England.

Reversion to the Guild Idea. It is probably not too much to say that the decision of the workers in the Building Trades of Manchester to form themselves into a Building Guild and to offer to construct houses, without any intervention on the part of employers, direct for the Manchester City Council, is the most significant and revolutionary development that has ever taken place in the

trade union world. For some years now the guild theory has been discussed and debated—once at Leeds. In the case of the headquarters of the Theosophical Society it was applied to a limited degree; but here is a bold, practical, and extended application which may lead in the early future to the organisation of the whole building industry on the Guild basis. "One feels ashamed," remarked Mr. Cole at the National Guilds meeting addressed by Mr Bernard Shaw in London recently— feels ashamed to have been discussing this Guild idea so long without having thought of this simple, practical scheme." It is the Manchester Guild Committee which has worked out a constructive scheme in detail, and the

names of those who have participated in it deserve ~.ouru.. 'liiey are: Mr. S. G. Mobson, author of "National Guilds and the State Councillor Lewis Watson, President of the Operative Bricklayers' Society; Councillor Richard Coppock, North-Western Organiser of the Building Trade Operatives Federation; and Councillor Frank Gregson, secretary of the Manchester branch of the Federation. The Manchester branch of the Federation has now taken over responsibility for the whole scheme from this original small committee.

Already steps are being taken to secure the adoption of the scheme in many parts of the country. The Management Committees of all the Building Trade Unions of Warrington have unanimously decided to form a Building Guild Committee, and it is intended that the committee should work conjointly with the Manchester committee. At Wigan, Bolton, and other Lancashire towns plans for Guild organisation are well advanced. In London, committee discussions are proceeding, and a big public meeting to further the idea is to be held in the Kings way Hall. A conference is being held in Rotherham with a view of adopting the scheme. A special conference of the National Federation of Building Trades’ Operatives is being held in

Manchester to discuss housing, and the Guild system will certainly receive particular attention.

One word of warning should be given. The Guild organisation will provide the labour, but it will not provide the materials.

The Ministry of Health was at first somewhat sceptical about the scheme, but the conferences which took place between the officials and representatives from Manchester modified its views. The point which both the Government and the municipalities have been raising most difficulties about is financial. The Manchester Guild Committee decline, of course, to take any financial responsibility. "That is not our concern," they say. "We possess a monopoly of labour in the building trade in Manchester. If the Manchester City Council will supply the materials, we will organise the labour. We do not want to make a commercial profit, but we ask the Council to

advance the labour cost and overhead charges. If the scheme fails, the) Council will in any case have tangible property equivalent to the money advanced."

The Manchester Committee has received assurances of co-operation from architects and super visory workers, whose support is, of course, a necessary part of Guild organisation.