Discordant Note Sounded By Union Leaders

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1949, Page 5

Discordant Note Sounded By Union Leaders

LONDON, September 19 (Rec. 1 p.m.).—Shop stewards of the National Council of Engineers, and Allied Trades today warned all shop stewards of what it called a “propaganda drive by Ministers to defeat their legitimate claims.” They described Sir Stafford Cripps’s devaluation measure as another step m this direction. The council, referring to the wage increase claims of £l, said that after the Chancellor’s speech, and rejection of the railwaymen’s claims nothing could be expected from the Arbitration Council. It said that a £1 wage rise was needed more than ever, as it was clear that workers were expected to bear the burden of the crisis. “The increase in*the price of bread is only the first move. Living costs can be expected to rise six or seven per cent soon.” Both the Central Council of the Trade Union Congress and the National Union of the Manufacturers’ Administrative Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the new situation.

The Communist Party has issued a statement that the “devaluation is the most open and brutal step yet taken by the Government in its attempt to develop a slump and to put the burden on the working people of Britain.” It was an attack on real wages and would enable the Wall Street millionaires to buy up British industries more cheaply. Devaluation would develop mass unemployment, said the statement.