Profuse press publicity has Pre&eded the publication of “A Plan for Miners", We hope it will act as a guide for a Labour Government and not have to be fought bitterly for from a Tory administration.
Max Madden, reviewing the charter in Tribune, writes: "There is already talk of workers, thrown out of work by automation, receiving full pay while unemployed. In such conditions wmions should be presenting plans for their own industries - of their production and manpower prospects to ensure that change does not bring the hariship it has in the past, The miners' plan must be copied by other unions who represent workers in industries facing drastic changes as the result of automation and new techniques, Yet where are the plans for the railways for instance?"
Railwaymen are aware of this need for a "Plan for Railwaymen",. Dundee and East Ham NUR branches have resolutions on the agenda of their annual conference to this effect. Dundee branch states: "That in view of the rapid modernisation in the railway industry, bringing as it does changing techniques and new labour methods, and in some spheres automation, we refer our National Executive Committee the urgent need for the forming of a new charter for railwaymen taking into account wages and salaries and labour conditions to correspond with the immense changes taking place in the industry," East Ham submit. "That this AGM calls upon the NEC to draw up a charter for railwaymen on the basis of that published by the NUM."
When Beeching closed down railway workshops en agreement was negotiated by the NUR, under the threat of strike action, that was thought to win a concession of & premature pension pay for redundant workers between the age of 60 and 65. Now we learn that a hidden, or at least overlooked, clause disqualifies redundant workers from this benefit. East Ham NUR branch have lodged en appeal for action to reverse this ruling. I believe that the two industrial unions representing the railwaymen and the miners will face the challenge of the new industrial revolution together, and with a Socialist Government in Westminster, confidently,