TATEMENTS by two employers who are at present in conflict with the trade unions indicate a hardening of attitude. Mr. Walter Womar, general manager of the Potteries Motor Traction Company, made a statement at Stoke-on-Trent on March 4th. He claimed that the provincial bus companies would price themselves out of business if the busmen’s demands were met. Mr. Womar, whose crews have struck three times, said that granting the demands would mean a serious reduction in existing services and an “astronomical increase” in fares. He added: “The minimum fare would have to be increased from 3d. to 5d. and all other fares proportionately. We may just as well put up the shutters. We will be pricing ourselves out of business.” On March 3rd, a representative of the Pressed Brick Makers’ Association claimed that the ban on overtime and week-end working by maintenance men in the fletton brick industry “will inevitably lead to loss of brick production on a mounting scale.” The employers were facing leapfrogging pay demands “‘with no prospect of their ever coming to a conclusion,” the statement went on. This “untenable position” was caused on the one hand by claims for increased differentials for Electrical Trades Union and Amalgamated Engineering Union members and demands for similar payments to restore the
balance for their employees in the
Transport and General Workers’
Union and National Union of
General and Municipal Workers.
In the circumstances the employers
had last month rejected an E.T.U.
and A.E.U. application, for an in-
crease in a 10/6 lieu bonus, or for
any increase in the differential for
maintenance workers, and ruled out
further negotiations on maintenance
workers’ pay “unless and until the
other unions concerned were present,”
the statement added. The mainten-
ance workers had decided to work
strictly to rule from March rst, and
essential maintenance work, normally
done at week-ends, was affected,
Of course we have all these argu-
ments before—back in the r1o-hour-
day campaign the employers claimed
that all their profit was earned after
to hours had been worked. The
significance of these statements how-
ever must be seen in relation to the
Government’s attitude towards an in-
comes policy, The very hardness
of the employers’ attitude would sug-
gest that perhaps they expect support
from the Government.
If Mr. Womar wants us to take
his claim about ‘being priced out of
business’ seriously he should give the
trade unions and rank and file bus-
men access to his books. The brick
manufacturers’ tactics of playing one
union against another should be met
by a united trade union front.