PEACE IN INDUSTRY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16539, 5 January 1928, Page 10

PEACE IN INDUSTRY

LABOR LEADER’S SUGGESTION. PRINCIPLE OF PIECEWORK. LONDON, October 28. Mr. Robert Williams, who was chairman of the Labor . Party, last year and now is manager of the Daily Herald, has proposed a scheme for securing peace in industry. He admits that, the conflicts of the, last seven years have failed, tfiat. they have led to euoripous national waste, that in the end they have generally been settled jjy negotiation and compromise, and he wants to know why the negotiation and compromise .cannot come before instead of .after a fight. “ What is required,” he writes, “if Britain is to get back to prosperity, is a new spirit on both sides, a new vision to realise the greatness of the opportunity and to grasp it firmly ere it is too late.” There arc 10 points in hj„s programme, which may be thus summarised: — (1) —A national industrial conference of trade unions and employers’ federations. No politicians to attend. (2) —A living wage as the basis of peace. (3) Mass production wherever possible, including agriculture. (4) —Piecework, with an undertaking that no reduction ip tlic rates shall take place for 10 years, no matter how much production increases. (5) —Trade unions to guarantee the efficiency of every man with a union card. (6.) —-Obligatory arbitration in all .disputes. .Strikes only permitted when negotiations have failed. (7) —No “ blacklegging ”bv employers outside their federations. (8) Reorganisation of industries with out-of-date equipment or methods. (9) Cheaper power and more machinery to save heavy manual labor. (10) —A permanent secretariat 1 of industry. 'These are the points which Mr. Williams elaborates, insisting on “ a living wage ” as the basis of peace. His piecework proposal, if accepted bv labor, represents a new idea. The trade unions have generally resisted it, but their general objection has been that, if men began to do well, under the svstem some employers out the rates. This has always been the assigned 1 reason for “ ca’ canny.”