The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-09-04
LABOR NEWS
FROM BRITAIN
. GOVERNMENT
CONSULTATION
VALUABLE ASSET
THE PEACE TECHNIQUE

Exceptional interest attaches this
year to the Assembly Of the Trades
Union Congress. It opens on the first
Monday in September and will ex-
tend over four days.
War time difficulties of travel and
accommodation, and the necessity Of
arranging that responsible Trade
Union delegates and officials shall not
be too long away from their jobs, will
curtail the time of Congress by one
full day.
The preliminary agenda of the
Congress, just issued to the affiliated
unions, contains more than sixty reso-
lutions. Over half of these deal with
the trade unions and the war.
The terms Of most of them testify
to the trade union determination to
fight this war through. Typical of
the spirit underlying them is the
resolution tabled by the big union of
general workers, which approves the
general relationships existing be-
tween the TUG and the war govern
ment of Britain. 1t declares that the
continuous consultation between the
unions and government departments
has been "a valuable asset in the
building up of our war productivity.
This resolution also insists that the
manning of industry is of equal i'm
portance with man-power for the
fighting services in view Of the de-
mand that mechanized warfare makes
for maximum output of munitions.
Many Of the resolutions bear wit
ness to the Importance that the
unions attribute to the maintenance
and development of these relations
with ministers and government de-
partments. Nothing like this system
of mutual confidence and collaboration
with the leaders of organized labor
has ever been attempted by any gov
ernment before.
1t is no longer in the nature of an
experiment: it has become a firm
practice which will assuredly not be
abandoned when the war ends. It's
results are too strikingly successful
for the system to be scrapped.
Fruits of Cooperation
One practical result Of high social
significance was emphasized by the
Prime Minister in the recent debate
on war production.
Mr.. Churchill, dealing with the al
legation that labor is behaving badly
in this war, contrasted the present
state of things in industry with the
conditions that obtained in the last
war. Between 1914 and 1918 there
were, he reminded the House, many
bitter and devastating trade disputes.
In the last two years Of that war
nearly 100000 working days were
lost through these disputes. So far,
in the whole period of this war, a
two-year period, we have lost no more
than 100000 working days.
A few minutes before Prime Min
lister Churchill rose to speak in this
debate some figures were handed to
him. At the moment he spoke, he
declared, there was not single stop
page of work of any kind arising from
a trade dispute in any part of Britain.
Could there be more emphatic tes-
timony to the value of the policy
which recognizes the trade unions as
responsible organs Of industrial ad-
ministration and accepts their col
laboration in the conduct of the vast
enterprise of war production
About Trade Disputes
Even so, the loss of two million
working days in two years seems at
superficial glance to be an item of
some magnitude.
1t is a relatively small amount,
however, when the size of the labor
force now employed in industry is
taken into account, and when one un-
derstands how the total of working
days lost is calculated.
A stoppage lasting single day is
counted as a hundred days if it in
wolves hundred workpeople. Here
are some facts from last years re-
turns which illustrate the true po-
sition:
During 1910 there were about 940,-
COO working days lost through trade
disputes. Four -fifths of these stop
pages lasted for less than a week.
The total number of workpeople di-
rectly involved was about 225,OO0: but
workpeople are counted in the totals
for each year as often as they are
involved in dispute during that year.
The net total Of workpeople so in
volved in 1910 was actually $4,000.
The aggregate time lost as a conse-
quence was the lowest recorded for
any year in the whole period of 4S
years for which comparable statistics
are obtainable.
1t is, in fact, not lip-service to the
trade unions but direct practical eX-
perience which caused the govern
ment to say recently that the con-
tnuance of collective bargaining dur
ing this war has enabled industrial
peace to be maintained.
Unions On the Alert
Other resolutions on the agenda o.
the forthcoming Congress show how
keenly alive the unions are to the
necessity of keeping watch on all war
1 H. H. - IL