The Unions' Next Move
It was clear from the start that the reactions of the unions to Mr. Gaitskell's speech at the Trades Union Congress last week would be more important than the speech itself. It is, therefore, surprising that the very interesting events of the last two days of the conference received so little attention in the Press. What happened was just about the worst that could have happened. Mr. Figgins of the National Union of Railwaymen said that the Chancellor's statement, in which he had referred to the need for wage restraint and pointed out that the possi- bilities of squeezing profits further were limited, would merely be a nuisance to the unions in pressing their demands for higher wages. Mr. Tom Williamson, of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, moved a resolution on profits, prices, and subsidies which ran counter to the Chancellor's speech last week and harked back to the very different speech which he made just before Parliament rose—the one in which he announced dividend limitation and more controls. This resolution was supported by the T.U.C. General Council, and was carried. Mr. W. C. Stevens, of the Electrical Trades Union, who went further and suggested wage increases all round, saw his resolution defeated, but some of the reasons advanced against it were almost as fantastic as the resolution itself. Mr. Douglas Houghton, for example, suggested the " alternative " of an addi- tional tax on profits, the proceeds of which should be distributed as family allowances. The practical point to notice is not that the important and powerful men who said these things had applauded the sound sense talked by Mr. Gaitskell at Blackpool a few days earlier, but that they will go away and act is if Mr. Gaitskell had never spoken.
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