Making Ends Meet SIR, —I have only just seen the
article by a bank clerk in-your issue of July 27th, but I-hope you can find space for a few. words from a much older man who is now retired on pension after spending nearly fifty years in the service of a bank. I have no fault- to find with the article itself, which draws a true picture of the yoting bank clerk's plight; but would point out that he is, himself, largely to blame for his shabby treatment. Your correspondent coMpares his lot with that of the miner, but a more apt comparison would be with of conditions of his -colleagues in the. Irish banks, who are in receipt of salaries and ernoluinents far in excess of his' own. Why should there be this great difference ? The answer is that" the Irish bank clerk—like the miner—is almost to a man 'a member of his trade union, and that union is therefore strong enough to negotiate on equal terms with his employers and to obtain conditions of service which are almost beyond the dreams of the bank clerk in this
' - • country. •
There is such a union here, and- over 30,000 men and women are members of it, bus for some mysterious reason an even greater numher prefer to rely on the good offices of internal or staff associations, which, though they doubtless have their uses, cannot from their -Very'nature be independent. They were set up by the banks themselves,•whO are very well acquainted with the old tag, Divide et Impera, and here we have an outstanding example of its cogency.—I am, Sir, yours truly,
EX-BANK-MANAGER.
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