CO-OPERATION BY TRADE UNIONS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22908, 3 January 1940, Page 3

CO-OPERATION BY TRADE UNIONS

PRIME MINISTER’S ORDER

INDUSTRIAL : ORGANISATION 5 IN BRITAIN

(raou ova own coaaaspOKDaNT.) - LONDON,. November <2O. Complete understanding - and cooperation between the .trade union movement and all Government departments for war-time planning has been assured by an instruction' from the Prime Minister, Aft: Neville Chamberlain. This news, .of the most , vital importance to the power and. efficiency of the nation’s war .'effort, became known. after a meeting "of : the. Trades: Union Congress General' Council, .this week, vMr Chamberlain deeply impressed the General Council, when they.; saw him recently. Later the chairman of the Trades ‘ Union ; Council, Mr VV. Holmes, and the general secretary, Sir Walter Citrine, met Mr Chamberlain then, told them that he had circulated-;an-Instruction to : aU Government departments emphasising the Government’s-; desire that "there should be the most complete . understanding and co-operation between the departments and the trade union movement. The Socialist and trade ,• union movements, have; thus-gained their objective of being able to: give their advice

organisation, munitions production, and trade in general. * ■ Including; plans which have gone ahead in come o£ : ; the departm|nts_ independently of any prompting from Mr Chamberlain, though - doubtless in aH cases with Mr Chamberlain s_blessirig, the trade unions will now be represented in discussions oyer this wde range of national activities: Ministry of -Supply matters, Ministry • of Ministry: of Economic Warfare. of Education questions. National Joint Advisory Committee on Industry, fishing industry and fish'supply questions, shipping. . . in all cases the trade union contribution to Britain’s .-effort v, will_. be through joint committees which the Trades Union' Council have contended -ever since -the Ministry _ of Supply was set up. were essential to tne speed and. efficiency : of the large production programmes. New Committees The first meeting of the National Joint Advisory Committee,. of,.employers and Trades Union, Council spokesmen—ls a side—will take place shortly This committee will assist ’Mr JErnest Brown,' Minister' for Labour, and: otnei, Ministers, on-labour questions connected with British- trade in general, including, bf . course, the arms v pro-. grammes. A national advisory committee on the war-time organisation of tne fishing industry'; will: be set up. Mr Winston. Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Reginald Dorman Smith, 1 Minister for Agriculture, and other Ministers who met Mr. Ernest Bevin .and; other representativespt fishing ..interests, employers,-and unions last week, will havefufthei* talks .with all .concerned. ■■ Tiie advisory committee ■. will.. aeai, with such questions as:, convoy.’ sys-. tems - for trawlers working on distant fishing grounds; release of the Admiralty for, service in. the mdusr,shortages -caused r-, by t war-

time requirements have been> made? * good: building of new trawlers on,* “mass production” lines to - take tne.« places of those requisitioned ,by the; Government, and schemes for,employ- :s ment of fishermen , (many have • lost. s their wbrk because of : requisitioning Mi*, trawlers and . drifters).. • I*