INDUSTRIAL WELFARE

Northern Advocate, 19 December 1928, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL WELFARE

CO-OPERATIVE SPIRIT.

WORKERS' OPEN APPROVAL.

EMPLOYERS MEET PRIVATELY.

(Australian Press Association.) (Received 10.47 a.m.) LONDON, December 17.

The ‘ ‘ Times ’ ’ in a leader, emphasising that within a day or two employers will be meeting to examine industrial co-operation, recalls that just a year has elapsed since Lord Melchett launched the 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 a paramount industrial question. ■Hitherto the two employers ’ associations, although reciprocating the desire for a bettor understanding, were not permitted by their constitution to undertake such negotiations, but a‘method of linking them, will bo found if the purpose of the negotiations is approved. Perhaps the employers' associations have a lingering suspicion of the Trades Unionists’ intentions, but the only proof of a change of heart is practical demonstration, which the Trades Unions have shown by adoption of the policy of co-operation. Meanwhile the interim report published in July, as a result of the employers and Trades Unionists’ unofficial discussion, indicates a joint desire for CO'operation, but it is incomplete. If the movement is whittled down to improvement of the machinery dealing with disputes, the incentive will largely evaporate. Whole-hearted co-opera-tion is the need today but the word making co-operation an early and hopeful experiment has at this stage to be spoken by the employers.