HOLIDAYS AND STRIKES: A PROBLEM OF WAR TIME

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24075, 11 October 1943, Page 4

HOLIDAYS AND STRIKES: A PROBLEM OF WAR TIME

WORKERS IN BRITAIN

/T _ -Si? t t nvn Secretary, New South Wales Branch of the Australia^ (By DR. LLOYD JOSS. utely been iu Britain.) (Published by Arrangement with the “Sydney Morning Herald.’)

On railway stations and in newspapers appears the question. Is your Surnev really necessary?” But the whole of industrial Scotland seemed to be eo\ng on holidays; Queues stretched back from the station for betwlef five and six blocks, and travellers waited all night for trains on stations, jammed with people, dogs, children, and suitcases.

Although few heeded the appeal not to travel, one could tell from snatches of conversation that all were not happy about this holiday-making. “I must have a rest,” they were saying: or, “You have to get out of Glasgow: you can’t stand the smoke and dirt for ever.” An official report reads: “The need for a good holiday away and the determination to take it continue to be reported.” Travelling to a lecture engagement among the holiday-makers, standing for hours in queues with them or in corridors of packed trains, as patient as the rest, bustling with my luggage, exchanging a piece of chocolate for a sandwich on a long journey, talking, but mainly listening—in all this I felt that the people’s determination to take holidays offered a valuable commentary on the problem of industrial unrest in war-time Britain. Absenteeism is still a major problem, and industrial disputes are increasing. Members of the House of Commons attack the miners—but the Government insists on continuing to build the machinery of procedure for avoiding strikes or settling them quickly. Here are a few examples: the National Negotiating Committee established for the mining industry is a “landmark in the history of the industry,” in Major Lloyd George’s words. Significantly enough its first case is a claim by youths for holiday pay, and a national wage scale for that group from which is cominv industry’s main difficulties. Pittop committees have been established for dealing with absentees. Strikes continue as a factor—but only one factor—in the coal industry’s difficulties.

by foreign investigators of our com* pulsory arbitration—if strikes ar= pro-i . hibited, how can they is legal or voluntarily'accepted nSJv chinery available, why do men strike? What is the use of compulsory arbitra-. tion in Australia? What, also, is the use of machinery for arbitration and conciliation in Britain and America? What value is the no-strike pledge given in America by the A.F. of L. and the C.1.0., and loyally supported by both? Actually machinery does much to avoid disputes and to solve them. The ?.. position is better in Britain than in America, mainly because Britain recognises collective bargaining, and has established a rule of law in industrial; relations. The better the machinery the better the results, and there is much to be said in favour of the mixture of V compulsory arbitration and voluntary ■ conciliation existing in Britain. Unless there had been shown a will-; ; ingness by the Government to build up new machinery in response to the changing needs of war time, and unless there had been a sincere determin- - ation by the unions to use that machinery, there would have been many more > disputes, and much more disastrous ones in both Britain and America, but machinery is not sufficient. Real or ■ imaginary causes must be removed,. and complaints seriously considered. Strain Telling

Under an act recently passed, a wages commission was established for reviewing arrangements for fixing wages and conditions throughout the catering industry, A special tribunal for the bus industry recently made an award causing considerable disappointment and some strikes anmng the members of Mr Ernest Bevin’s own Transport Union. Lightning Strikes Lightning strikes are becoming more popular among these workers. No one would accuse Mr Bevin as Minister of Labour of fostering such disputes, and no one would deny' that the unions’ full authority has been directed against the disputes, but they still occur.

The people of Britain are physically exhausted and mentally weary. Thatis why they rush away on holidays and why they do not think twice before “walking out” or arriving latti for work. They are as loyal and determined to win as ever, but they feel, that the improving war situation gives, them some liberty to move and-soma freedom of action to strike.

One works manager said to me: “The strain is beginning to tell. In our fac- * tory we have been working for. 60 ihours a week ever since Dunkirk, and - they cannot stand the strain. Fortun- -j ately there is no leadership which f wants to strike. The most militant of ? the men are the hardest workers, and, they restrain the occasional demands for ditect action.”

So it would be possible to paint a gloomy picture of British popular morale or of the industrial unrest from either the holiday-makers or the strikers. It would be possible to argue, as have some politicians, that Mr Bevin and Major Lloyd George have been overweak in handling a situation whose figures are revealed as follows: — Total disputes, 1941, 1251; 1942, 1303; people affected, 1941, 360,000; 1942, 456,000; working days lost, 1040, 940,000; 1941, 1,080,000; 1942, 1,530,000. The first half of 1943 indicates a certain growth of unrest, taking the form of many sporadic strikes. Any one-sided conclusions from such figures, directed against Mr Bevin, the trade unions, or the workers, wouM be unfair and inaccurate. The unions are opposed to the. strikers. The unions are carrying out a. strenuous campaign to emphasise the importance of using the regular machinery which has been established. • ,

I have cited Glasgow’s minor holiday difficulties as an example, of the industrial unrest and wastage in wartime, to illustrate my general argument about the need for approaching-war-time industrial unrest from different viewpoints. Fortunately, Britain . has not the same grave problem to solve that, for exaipple, the negro in- 4 * dustrial problem presents in America., 4 but . Britain has its weaknesses _ and limitations in the people’s war activity,- 1 A one-sided picture from both coun- , tries could be painted by describing • the disputes, waste, inefficiency, absenteeism, strikes, and ribts, but the real, i emphasis must be placed on the in-, - creasing production, improving rela---,-, tions, declining proportionate part - played by disputes, and the courage of t the political and labour leaders shown Jr in the struggle for production and fop--,® victory. vJjl Building a New Britain ••jfv

The president of the Miners’ Federation tdld me, “We must respect our agreements," and a prominent official of the Transport Union said: “The unions have made every endeavour to respect the undertaking given to the Government not to engage in strikes for the duration of the war. There have been no strikes of any real gravity, but small strikes which we have quickly settled." Strikes have not been the result of union meetings, and have not even aL ways been made by decisions on the job. Often they have been genuinely as spontaneous and unorganised as the crowding of holiday places by the people. The Government tackles both problems with a combination of discipline and controls and appeal on the one side, and on the other of compensations, satisfactions, attractions, and attentions to the cause. Workers’ Own Discipline Workers who are frequently late or absent are brought before the Court, and punished, but only after the Factory Joint Production Committee has tried persuasion and given permission to take the case to the Court. “The workers are harder on one another than we are,” said one manager.

The Joint Production Committees are the latest instance of the establishment of voluntary machinery in industrial- relations. Mr Bevin established a National Arbitration Tribunal for dealing with major disputes, but neither the employer nor the trade union can compel the other to argue the claim before the tribunal. Nevertheless, strikes are illegal, and the Minister has the power to bring disputes before the tribunal, although he does so only as a last resource. He relies on the parties to establish their own conciliation machinery, and does not interfere if a voluntary scheme exists. Compulsory arbitration in the Australian meaning of the term does not exist, because there are voluntary agreements coVering almost every eventuality in most industries. Yet strikes still occur —why add how? Thosjjp are the same questions that we Australians used to be asked

The weaknesses must not be dis-*& torted or exaggerated by interested’ persons and parties to suggest that Britain and America have been weak- 1 * ened by industrial unrest. But the limitations arfi weaknesses in a situation which is amazingly good, and the . , limitations must be removed. Thus,, simultaneously with the prosecution of absentees, Mr Bevin is hastening t .; schemes for the removal of causes of sickness and fatigue among workers. - Canteens get an extra share of rations, . and hostels are being built for these .. employed away from home.' An increasing number of children are being : provided with meals at school. Plans are being promulgated for the building of a new Britain. J Simultaneously with emphasis by ■ the .president of the Amalgamated ' Engineering Union (Mr Tanner) on the need for the removal, of wage • anomalies, goes his emphasis on extending the scope of the joint labourmanagement production committees. Will Lawther. in his presidential address to the Miners’ Federation, appealed to the miners for increased production and for everything possible towards winning the war, but he added: “One of the greatest weaknesses .of the control now operating is demonstrated in the fact that you can't have successful productipn whilst ownership remains in private hands. There is no suggestion that changes in control should be made a concution of increased activity. Creative acts against unrest range from a network of lectures organised by the Minister of Information to classes conducted by the W.E.A.. from campaigns for providing cheerful “holidays-at- . home” to decisions of the Ministries of Mines and of Aircraft Production to take over pits and plants where labour relations have been bad or inemciency has prevailed, from the work of political leaders like Mr Bevin and , Mr Morrison to pronouncements of trade unionists like Tanner and Lawther. and Sir Walter Citrine. From the American C.1.0. to the British Trades Union Congress, Labour leaders, political and industrial, realise their responsibilities, but they cannot always find the solution the workers need. Waves of fatigue and weariness that spread through the plants are not always avoided in time, and deep prejudices cannot be removed in a few months. Limitations and weaknesses remain, but he is doing great harm who, in this sensitive and complicated world of labour relations, either exaggerates the weaknesses or promotes the unrest for political or sectional interests,