CO-OPERATION IN INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 73, 19 December 1928, Page 11

CO-OPERATION IN INDUSTRY

EFFORTS IN BRITAIN

ATTITUDE OF EMPLOYERS AND UNIONS

(“Times” Cables.)

London, December 17.

“The Tinies,” in a leading article on industrial co-operation, emphasising the faet that within a day or two employers will be meeting to examine the question of industrial co-operation, recalls that just a year has elapsed since Lord Melchett launched his proposal, “but whereas the Trades Union Congress publicly debated and approved the scheme in September, the employers are meeting in private, leaving the public uninformed concerning the nature and force of the arguments influencing their action regarding the paramount industrial question. “Hitherto two employers’ associations, although reciprocating the de? sire for a better understanding, are not permitted by that constitution to undertake such negotiations, but a method of linking them will be found, if the purpose of the negotiations is approved. Perhaps the employers have a lingering suspicion of the trades unionists’ intentions, but the only proof of a change of heart is a change of practice and habit which the trades unions gave by the adoption of the policy of co-operation. “Meanwhile the interim report, published in July, on the result of the employers’ and trade unionists’ unofficial discussions, indicates a joint desire for co-operation, but it is incomplete if the movement is whittled down to an improvement in the machinery dealing with disputes, and the incentive will largely evaporate. Whole-hearted co-operation is the need to-day, but the word making cooperation an early and hopeful experiment. has at this stage to be spoken by the employers.”