A Conference called by the Joint Board of the Parliamentary
Committee of the Trades Union Congress, the General Federation of Trade Unions, and the Labour Party decided yesterday week to accept the Government's Trade Unions No. 2 Bill under protest. Mr. Henderson, M.P., who presided, pointed out the risks involved in rejecting the half-loaf offered by the Government, and frankly admitted that their position in regard to the Osborne Judgment was entirely different from that set up by the Taff Vale case. Then the whole trade union movement—Liberal, Conservative, Labour, or Socialist —was solidly united in the demand for reversal. By no stretch of imagination could it be suggested that this was the case in regard to the Osborne Judgment. Some of the subsequent speakers strongly condemned the acceptance of the Bill, but the adoption of the Committee's report was ultimately carried by 376 to 76.
Previous page
