from a Birmingham reader COUSINS BaCks (hs Vi
\ here the Government Readers of The Week will know of the shocking case wi ; has chosen to inSist that car delivery men's wages in the Birmingham area are cut, allegedly because the decision to increase them transgressed the wage freeze policy, This provocative action evoked a quick response from Frnak Cousins, who is general secretary of the union to which the men belong, Speaking to the annual conference of the Association of Cinematograph, television and Allied Technicians ( one of the five white-collar unions which have fought the wage freeze) he saids "I am not going to have members of my organisation confidence-tricked into doing something and then not getting paid. We have said to the employers that we accept the Government's right to do what they have done under an existing law and now we are back at the negotiating stage. We are saying to the employers: ‘all right, don't pay, we accept it, But we are not doing the work for which you were going to pay us." Although Frank Cousins! line is a direct challenge to the Government he was careful to avoid saying anythingwhich could be interpreted as a direct challenge to the Prices and Incomes Act. Under the Act, it is an offence punishable by fines up to £500 to attempt to "compel, induce ar influence" an employer to violate a wage freeze Order and pay a forbidden increase, The leader of the employers' group concerned. Ron Charrington, chairman of the Longbridge Group of Delivery Agents, said on Saturday, 1 April, that he would ask the Government to take action if sanctions were taken against any company in the group. The TGWU is arguing that far from forcing the employers to pay the disputed increase, the union has given up the deal because the employers are unable to keep up their side of the bargain, This being the case, the men are reverting to methods of working which applied before the wage increase was negotiated, In pructive this amounts to the men refusing to make return journeys carrying cars to Birmingham from the docks and from factories in London, the North West and Glasgow areas, The employers claim that this makes the whole operation uneconomic, If the men work this way for any length of time most of the big motor car firms will be affected, Before Christmas the British Motor Car Corporation was forced to a standstill when faced with this situation, Cousins and the TGWU are obviously pursing a tactical campaign in their fight against the Government's wage freezé policy. It is to be hoped that they fight this through to the bitter end and do not rely upon legalistic formulas as opposed to mobolising mass support, If they rely upon manipulation they will find that Wilson will be able to defeat them easily under circumstances when they are isolated from both left and right, No one in their right mind would ask Cousins pa his executive to face prosecution for the sake of it, However, a very/stand on this question, carried out in such a way that millions of workers would understand the issues involved, could be the beginning of the end for Wilson's wage freeze policy. If under these circumstances Wilson was so foolish to gaol trade union leaders far from isolating themselves these trade union leaders would become overnight mass leaders against the wage freeze, The present impasse in the labour movement will only be overcome by soemone presenting themselves as a real alternative to Wilson. Let us hope that this will not wait too long,