Shock Treatment
To outward appearances the British European Airways crisis was expeditiously settled over the weekend. The engineers who had been summarily dismisssed crept back to work on Monday with their tails between their legs. But one thing remains obscure: what really gave rise to the trouble in the first place ? Workers of this standing do not behave so stupidly as did these engineers unless they have some reason— good or bad. Can it be that labour relations are poor in the Corporation ? Not according to Mr. James Matthews, secretary of the trade union side of the national joint council for civil air transport; he told the TUC two months ago that BEA had established a consultative organisation which could not be bettered in any other industry in the country. It is curious then that the staff of BEA should apparently be so far from contented. A possible explanation is that consultative machinery may be useless, and even harmful, unless everybody concerned has faith in it. There really can be precious little excuse for BEA's having to wash its dirty linen so publicly. Has the Corporation allowed its conciliation machinery to erect a barrier between executives and workers ?
Previous page
