TRADES UNIONISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 12

TRADES UNIONISM

CONGRESS AT NORWICH

BIG MEMBERSHIP INCREASE

BENEFITS OF TRADE

REVIVAL

(British Official Wireless.) (Received September ,7, 1.45 p.m.) RUGBY, September 6.

Re-armament will be. the dominating : political issue at the 69th Trades Union Congress, which opened at Norwich today, but the programme includes many important questions bearing on, work- - ing conditions, including proposals in regard to the 40-hour week and holidays with pay.

The delegates, who number 620, represent 400,000 more members than a year ago. The membership last December was 4,008,647. Twelvemonths before it was 394,000 fewer. The membership is believed to be still increasing. All sections except the cotton section shared in last year's increase. Unions are benefiting by the revival of trade, and the membership has now reached the 4,000,000 mark for the first time for ten years. ;

In his presidential address; .Mr. Ernest Bevin, of the Transport and General Workers' Union, referred to the tremendous indignation aroused by the shooting of the British Ambassador in China. Whilst they "deeply regretted the particular incident, attack* on non-combatants in cold blood had. been going on lor months, and the public conscience was 'outraged by these horrors. MrJ Bevin- expressed hope for a victory of the democratic forces in Spain, and spoke of the sym- . pathy with which he believed trade unionists regarded the endeavour of the Chinese to maintain their sovereign rights unimpaired. - Dealing with domestic affairs, he gave an estimate of '9,000,000 workpeople as benefiting by collective agreements to which unions were parties.