The Wage Threat
The engineers' claim for a wage increase of £1 a week could kill industrial peace at one blow. There are loopholes in the policy of wage stabilisation, but none of them is wide enough to admit this claim, which would add well over £100 million to the annual wage bill. Yet there is not much evidence that the engineers ever intend to give it up. The threat of strike action which led to the present talks between the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering 'Unions and the Ministry of Labour is only the latest manifestation of a pressure which is continuous. Nominally the dispute is on a matter of procedure. The Conditions of Employment and National Arbitration Order makes a strike illegal unless the matter has been reported to the Minister of Labour and the Minister has had 21 days in which to settle it, one possible method' of settlement being com- pulsory arbitration. But the engineers' Confederation has prepared a ballot paper for submission to members in which strike action is named as one of the issues to be voted on. It is, therefore, arguable that the ballot paper ignores the provisions of the Order, and the question is now being argued between the Confederation and the Ministry of Labour. This particular point may be settled, but the major issue will remain. The engineers may abandon this method of presenting their claim, but they are unlikely to abandon the claim itself. Behind the proposal for a ballot in which the members of the engineering unions were to be presented with the possibility of illegal action stands the powerful Amalgamated Engineering Union. Only seven out of 27 affiliated unions voted for the ballot, but since the A.E.U. was one of the seven, the proposal was carried. And if it will do this while the wage stabilisation agreement is still in force, what will it do if, later in the year, the cost of living rises to the point at which the agreement becomes inoperative?
Previous page
