Cut HE normal period of apprenticeships throughout the building industry is to be reduced from five to four years from April 5. This move, which follows the introduction of 4 four-year apprenticeship in the Southern regions two years ago, was described by a building employers’ spokesman as “one of the most important advances in the industry’s recruitment and training drive since the national apprenticeship scheme was instituted at the end of the war.” It has been agreed by the National Joint Council for the Building Industry. The number of craft apprentices recruited into the industry last year was 12,745, the highest annual recruitment figure for ten years. It represented an increase of nine per cent, over the figure for 1963. The total number of indentured apprentices on the Council’s register at the end of 1964. was 43,011, compared with 39,211 a year before.
—Jill Westby
Labour Affiliation
—from E.W.
HE National Association of Col-
liery Overmen, Deputies and
Shotfirers, which has a membership
of 33,496, has affiliated to the Labour
Party. ' pinion has changed its
rules and established a political fund
and its application to affiliate was
accepted by the national executive of
the party.
Aircraft Workers’
Conference
OLLOWING on from the recent
aircraft workers’ demonstrations,
the industry’s shop stewards con-
vened a national conference on the
theme “The Present and Future of
the Aircraft Industry,” held in Lon-
don, Saturday, February 27.
This event is clearly another de-
velopment in the growing activity
for workers’ control in this industry.
In our next issue we will publish
a full report of the conference by
Alan Rooney, editor Aviation Voice.