The May issue of The Director, the journal of the Institute of Directors, contains an article entitled "Where Time is Running Out", It urges overhaul of the unions! structure in order to abandon "restrictive practices" and hopes for voluntary action before the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers! Associations reports in 18 months or two yearse "The problem is more urgent thax that," the journal goes on, "It is to be hoped that the unions will still try as best they can during the waiting period to put their own house in order."
There was a growing awareness that the relationship between workers and management was at the root of Britain's economic difficulties. The key to lowering costs was more effinient and more rational use of manpower. "This me t the trade unions must be prepared to abandon restrictive practices which adopted at a time when their role was to defend their members from the perils of cheap and surplus labour," the journal adds, "The reform can only be achieyed if the structure of the unions is thoroughly overhauled and modernised," it concludes.
There seem to be many echoes of these arguments from within the trade union movement itself, It is to be hoped that members of the unions realise the paternity of these argurrts when they come forward.
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