Open Shop ?
The Durham County Council has now yielded to pressure from the Minister of Education, and given the undertaking he requires that in future candidates for teaching posts under the Council will not be required to produce evidence that they belong to a union. Owing to, the peculiar way in which these things are arranged in Durham, the decision to climb down has not been taken by the Council itself, but by the Labour caucus which controls the Council. It is possible to argue that the way in which Durham Labour has organised its power is even more reprehensible than the things it does, or tries to do, with that power. However, at the moment that is not the point at issue. What still remains undecided is the fate of other professional workers in the employ of the Council, The Minister of Education has secured relief for the teachers only ; doctors, nurses, midwives and engineers are still threatened by the same inquisition. There is nothing to stop the Durham Council from making membership of a union a qualification for holding local posts in these professions. The Minister of Health. it is true, has expressed his disapproval of the union test, but, as the case of the teachers has shown, mere Ministerial disapproval carries no weight with the Council. Presumably when the next medical vacancy under the Council occurs the whole story will be gone through again ; that is. unless the Council shows unexpected sense or the Minister unexpected weakness. But however long it takes, it is essential that in Durham the principle of profes- sional freedom should be established for all and without equivocation.
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