INCREASE SOUGHT BY ENGINEERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 45, 3 December 1949, Page 5

INCREASE SOUGHT BY ENGINEERS

“CLAIM COULD BE MET FROM PROFITS”

LONDON, Dec. 2.

Members of the Conferedation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, who are demanding an all-round increase of£l a week in defiance of the wage-freezing appeal by the Trades Union Congress, told representatives of the employers that their claim could be met out of profits amounting to £455,000,000 made by their industries last year.

This profit, they contended, represented £3 a head for eveVy worker employed in the shipbuilding and engineering trades, and they contended that £1 a week extra could be paid to every worker without putting up costs.

The chairman of the confederation (Mr Harry Brotherton) claimed that rising production since 1946 had gone for the most part into increased profits while tile rise in workers’ wages had not, even kept pace with the increased cost of living. He accused the employers of failing to play their part by limiting -profits. Sir Alexander Ramsey, director of the Employers’ Federation, said that his organisation would submit a detailed reply to the men’s claims in about three weeks.