STRIKE INVITATION
One issue which has apparently been causing some trouble to Labour is the question of unofficial strikes, and Mrs. Braddock showed herself to be in touch with the electorate when, was told a dockers' meeting that the working-class house- wife as sick of these stoppages. Mr. Foulkes. president of the Communist-controlled Electrical Trades Union, is also con- scious of the nuisance value of sporadic strikes, in a capitalist economy; in his address to the union conference on Sunday he issued what the Manchester Guardian headlined as a 'strike invitation' to his members, saying that every stoppage should be regarded as official unleSs the union executive say otherwise. Mr. Foulkes probably does 'not mind losing voters for the Labour Party, in spite of the usual declarations of Communist ' support for Labour candidates. Nor do the stevedores of the National Amalgamated Stevedores' and Dockers' Union, who have given in their strike notices this week. Sir Walter Monck- ton, Minister of Labour. is trying to arbitrate between them and the National Association of Port Employers, but the point at issue is whether the union shall be recognised, by the industry's joint negotiating machinery, which, as it is the result of a break-away movement from the Transport and General Workers' Union, might cause the latter, in their turn, to take strike action. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that it's ill for the'consumer in an inter-union row.
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