British Unionists Told That Wages Must Be Stable

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1949, Page 6

British Unionists Told That Wages Must Be Stable

LONDON, December 28. —There was no alternative to a policy of restraint in wage claims, said the general council of the British trades Union Congress in a statement issued today to affiliated unions. The council, which represents ■more than 8,000,000 organised workers was giving the economic background to its -recommendations lor restraint .made last month and scheduled to be discussed by a conference of the Trades Union Congress’s executive committee on January 12. Retail Price Index The recommendations, suggested that unions should reconsider their existing pay and sliding scale arrangements tied to the cost with a view to holding agreed wage rates stable while the index of retail prices remained between the limits of 118 and 106 points. / . , ~. The general council said that tne recommendations should be regarded as a to the collective effort for national recovery. They were made with the realisation that they would not be effective unless other sections of the community also made their contributions. _ t The only alternative to a policy or restraint, the statement continued, was “the acceptance under duress of such a measure of deflation as brought our movement to the edge of disaster in the inter-war years.” Deflation meant mass unemployment, savage wage cuts and reductions im the of living of all wageearning classes. Defending its policy of continued restraint, the general council said that'sterling devaluation had given some competitive advantages to British -exports to dollar countries. There had also been sbme increase in Britain’s gold and dollar reserves, but there was no guarantee that the demand for British goods or, in some industries, British productive capacity could be expanded so as to increase dollar earnings to the required extent, or even in certain circumstances to the dollar earnings'at the pre-devaluation ra’te. American Market \ There was no firm evidence that the high tariffs surrounding the American market would be sufficiently reduced. Britain was having to pay 44 per cent, rtvore for her dollar imports, which, having already been subject to serious curtailment, could nc4 easily be cut further. Britain’s domestic price level was being forced upwards. The impetus given to this tendency by a priceincome spiral would dissipate the competitive advantages derived from devaluation, leaving no., alterantive but a reduction in prices by deflation and mass unemployment, added the general council. < >