Tony Topham. The Director, origin of the Institute of Directors, leads its March issue with an editorial entitled: "What Would the Workers do on the Board?" In view of the discussion on.the Labour Party NEC statement on ‘Industrial Democracy', its contents are extremely interesting: "The idea of getting workers on to boards of directors is now beginning to develop a notable head of steam. The suggestion that a second Comnanies Bill, following the current one, will enable the introduction of new schemes such as these has quickly resurrected the vision of workers' participation in management. Moreover, several concrete steps to this end have been taken by the Government, "The first was a:nounced by the Minister of Power in an amendment to the Iron and Steel Bill. This was fairly revolutionary. As he stressed, for the first time it was intended that there should be no limits placed on the participation of workers in the running of an.industry. Well, perhaps a few. Although it.would have the right to information about the running of the steel business, one or two items would still be excluded. Some books, records and papers - particularly the minutes of the corporation - could not be allowed to get into workers' hands. After all, even workers cannot be expected to get on both sides of collective bargaining. (Our italics). As the Minister summed up the intention: "Management clearly has to have the right to hire or fire. They will have the right to make decisions, but the people involved should also have the right to express their point of view." "So far so good. The aim is fairly clear, The Government wants the unions to share in the responsibility for the working of a major industry. More important, they want the unions to share the responsibility for some of the expected unpopular decisions. Few people would quarrel with that. (Our italics). The only question is whether this kind of responsibility can be divorced from the responsibility of those actually running the concern, "The steel industry is not the only example where workers’ participation is being encouraged. A substantial increase is also being recommended in a plan reported to be in preparation for the Labour Party's annual conference in October. In particular a Transport House Working Party is said to be recommending legislation, possibly of a discretionary nature, to provide for trade union representation on boards of directors. The T.U.C. has welcomed the idea. But the Government may well be more cautious. It has good cause. "It is difficult to see how union members of the board could not be provided with the same full information now available to any normal director, Yet, if this were done, what would happen to free collective bargaining? One solution bei ut forward is the creation of two boards within a_sing-
Yet this would give the impression of putting the unions in the lower league, Like many other ideas of this kind, the principles seem easy until they have to be turned into practice." This is perhaps a classic statement of the corporatist's view of life: the vital relevance of the slogan which has been so fiercely discussed in the past four years: 'Open the Books!' could not be made plainer. The left must keep up its o:fensive for workers' control, and prepare a most serious