Postman's Shop
The attitude of the government to the closed shop issue is so obscure that the smallest ray of light on it is welcome. The Minister of Labour in the House of Commons and the trade union leaders in Congress at Brighton produced nothing but defensive evasions, and since then the search for a policy has had to be pursued into such unlikely places as Willesden Town Hall and the Post Office. In fact Monday's announcement, that the Postmaster-General had rejected a claim by the Union of Post Office Workers to be the sole negotiating body on behalf of the lower manipulative grades -of the Post Office was the clearest so far. Lord Listowel stated that recognition would not be denied to the smaller unions in the Post 'Office, despite the fact that in every case their membership is very much smaller than that of the U.P.W. Indeed he went further and established something resembling a minor principle. He said that he could not withdraw recognition from the smallzr unions for the single reason that their existence tended to complicate negotiations. So at least administrative inconvenience is not a suffi- cient reason for deprivation of liberty. But the T.U.C.'s avowed - aim of too per cent, union membergiip still remains and a careful scrutiny of the Postmaster-General's statement reveals no obvious inconsistency between the Government's policy and that of the T.U.C. So the main threat remains. But in the defence of lib_ertv every inch saved is valuable.
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