The liaison between Staff, Semi-
Skilled and Skilled Workers has
been good for many years. Joint
Production and Factory Meetings
are held regularly. Though there is
still room for improvement, our
system that brings twenty unions
together, could be used. as a model
to others.
If Woolwich Arsenal is destroyed
it will be a local and _ national
tragedy. Many local firms have
closed during the past few years.
The proposed housing increases in
the Woolwich and Erith areas will
disturb the job/house ratio. If Wool-
wich Arsenal is retained the balance
may be assisted with expansion. If
Labour uphold the evil Tory
decision, the result will be large
scale unemployment and/or expen-
sive wasteful long journeys to and
from work.
Editorial note: Next week we will
be carrying an article describing the
way the Woolwich Arsenal shop
stewards have been carrying on their
struggle. Needless to say, we support
their campaign and echo their call
for all trade union branches and
Labour Parties to send protests to
the Ministry of Defence. The con-
version of Woolwich Arsenal into a
‘factory for peace’, under Govern-
ment ownership and with an increas-
ing element of workers’ control,
could be a powerful lever in the
hands of a Government determined
to make inroads into capitalism.
THE WEEK — Feb. 17, 1965 The lot of farmworkers in Britain compared
is very unfavourable with that of industrial workers. Some of the problems which face them are illustrated in these two articles which appeared in the February issue of Landworker, journal of the National Union of Agricultural Workers.
Farmers ignore 1924 Wages Act
AST year, for the first time ever, the Union recovered arrears amounting to more than {10,000 on behalf of members whose employers had either paid them less wages than they were entitled to receive under the Agricultural Wages Board Orders, had not allowed them their holidays, or had dismissed them without proper notice. This means __ that since records were kept the Union has recovered £200,000 in arrears of wages for the membership. Consider also, that in the past ten years arrears of wages have been recovered by the Union and by the wages enforcement branch of the Ministry of Agriculture on behalf of more than 10,000 farm workers. It is shocking to reflect that this enforcement action has proved necessary sO many years after the passing of the 1924 Agricultural Wages Act. The monies recovered for these thousands of members were clearly due to them in law, and just as clearly would not have been paid by the employers concerned had it not been for the watchfulness of the Union and the legal powers vested in the Ministry. Part of the responsibility for this massive underpayment—and a comparable amount due but never recovered—trest upon the individual worker. We still get cases reported to us where a member has worked for years knowing himself to be underpaid but has taken no steps to get matters put in order until his employment has ended. It is understandable that a tied cottage occupant working for an unreasonable employer is going to be nervous at complaining about his wages.
TIED COTTAGES JOW many farm workers live in | tied cottages? In the Commons recently, Mr. R. H. S. Crossman (Minister of Housing and Local Government) said that there were estimated to be about 120,000 tied farm cottages in England and Wales. This number is about 45 per cent. of the total adult male whole-time farm workers at June of last year. But rather earlier Ministry of Agriculture statistics have said that 48.1 per cent. of the employed farm labour force occupy tied cottages. This suggests that living in them are a surprisingly high proportion of other categories: youths and girls, regular part-time and seasonal or casual workers.