PEACE IN INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20288, 22 December 1927, Page 11

PEACE IN INDUSTRY

THE EMPLOYERS’ EFFORTS. INVITATION TO CONFERENCE. (British Official Wireless.) (Pre«« Association—Bj Telegraph—Copyright I RUGBY, December 20. The General Council of the Trades Union Congress, at a special meeting today, accepted the invitation of a group of employers, who represent £1,000,000,000 capital, to confer for the purpose of promoting peace in industry. No date has been fixed for the conference, but it is expected to take place in the middle of January.

THE INVITATION ACCEPTED. HR COOK IN OPPOSITION. LONDON, December 20. (Received Dec. 20, at 5.5 p.m.) “ There is going to be peace all round,” said Mr Turner, chairman of th e Trades Union Congress, at the conclusion of the special meeting to consider the employers’ invitation to an industrial peace conference, which was accepted by a large majority. The text of the employers’ letter was as follows: “We realise that industrial reconstruction can be undertaken only in conjunction and co-operation with those entitled to speak for organised labour and the necessity for every effort to achieve that reconstruction impels us to seek the immediate co-operation of those as vitally interested as ourselves, we believe, in the common interests, which bind more powerfully than those which seem to separate. 'Prosperity in industry can be fully attained only by fully and frankly recognising facts and equally frankly determining to increase the competitive power of British industries in the world’s markets and freely discussing the essentials upon which that can be based,” Th e signatories represented 159 public limited companies with a capital exceeding £1,000,000,000, and covered every important industry. The Trade Union Congress discussion lasted four hours. Mr A. J. Cook opposed acceptance, declaring that there could be no peace until the employers revealed a more humane spirit. A conference would be a farce. Mr J. H. Thomas denounced Mr Cook’s policy of continuous strife. The decision was greeted with cheers, and the conference is expected to meet in January. Mr Cook, in a statement to the press, said that the decision would do more to create suspicion, distrust, and disruption than anything that, had occurred previously,—A. and N.Z. Cable.