STRIKES IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 3, 29 September 1943, Page 5

STRIKES IN BRITAIN

270,000 Working Days Lost In Six Weeks 9000 OUT AT VICKERS

LONDON, September 27. Britain is passing through a somewhat difficult stage domestically at present. It is the outbreak of unauthorized strikes, which is becoming so persistent that it cannot be airily dismissed. In the period from August 5 to September 18 there were 230 unofficial strikes, involving the loss of 270,000 working days. Today comes the news that for 10 days 9000 engineering workers m the arms firm of Vickers have been on strike over pay, and there is stated to bo no glimmer of the strike breaking. In order that people abroad ’ may maintain a proper perspective of this position, it should be borne iiYwind that last week’s manpower debate in the House of Commons showed that Britain has reached, the limit of her mobilization of manpower and woman-power. The degree of mobilization exceeds that of any other country engaged in the war, whether ally or enemy. What is the reason for the present phase? This question is occupying many minds at present. It has been asked whether the Government is requiring more of the country'than it is capable of doing to overthrow Nazism. Reason for Unrest. The “Economist” seems to put its finger on the spot when it says that "frictions of the fifth year of war mirror the hard labour of the four that have gone. Workers, managers, employers and administrators have undergone great physical and mental strain, not comparable in any way to the suffering in occupied Europe or war-wracked Russia, though more prolonged, but sufficient to make it understandable that there is far more unrest than has appeared. The causes of most of the strikes headlined in recent days are local and personal. They concern the grievances of individuals or the exasperation of relatively small groups of workers. They are important because they may be symptomatic of greater unrest to come. They undoubtedly represent a serious warning, but they should not be over-estimated.”

Referring to the position in the coal, shipbuilding and transport industries, it adds that the increase in working days lost “is not yet evidence of serious labour unrest, but of widespread fraying of nerves and goodwill. The workers are vexed by wartime conditions and troubled a'bout their prospects after the war; the absence of Government decisions on postwar policy causes scepticism and alarm.” There is an increasingly growing widespread demand for more definite Government statements on post-war policy, and a general hope that Mr. Churchill will soon be able to find time to turn his attention to the home front in addition -to the world front.