Mr. Clive Jenkins, general secretary of the Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians, told a press conference last week that he would not mind being invited to appear before the new incomes Board to defend his union's militant policies as it might be worth 10,000 new members. He said that his members expected their union to think in terms of 20% increases in wages instead of the 3 to 34%, envisaged by Mr. Brown.
"We're in business to get them that 20% and we are going to do it," he commented. He pointed out that the union's policy of militancy had already paid off in membership. A.S.S.E.T.'s size had doubled in just over four years to over 40,000, In a policy statement issued at the press conference, the union laid down 6 pre-conditions to their support for "wage-planning". These pre-conditions included a demand for "a large and rapid extension of the public sector of the economy."