Last week's issue of this journal quoted from an editorial in the Financial Times which called for legal sanctions against "Wildcat" strikes. This and other similar items evoked a correspondence on the whole question, Some City directors must have wondered if their newsagent had made a mistake when they read the following in the June 17th issue of "their" paper:
"Mr. Whitby..in his denunciation of wildcat strikes makes a common mistake, that is, he assumes that the strikers in such instances are completely irresponsible, The root cause of all wildcat or unofficial strikes is, in 95% of the cases, sheer frustration. Invariably this frustration is engendered by the combined attitudes of the unions and employers, Wages negotiations have no time limit ~ to ask for a rise now and get it a year later is hardly encouraging to the worker to have fnith in negotiations. The ordinary worker is not interested in the niceties of asking for a £1 in order to get 6shillings. He asks for a rise now and he wants it now. The press statements of the high-take-home earnings of £20-£30 per week are infuriating to the worker who is on a 42-hour week (the vast majority) and receiving £10-£11, or to the worker who has to work 60 hours per week to get it.
"It is interesting to note that the only truty democratic union in the U.K. is, or was until the enti-~Communists took over, the E.T.U., Every office was an elected one; if the elections were rigged this was not the fault of the Communists, but because the rank and file did not take enough interest. ‘hen they did, they had no difficulty in removing the Communists, Cnly because the structure of the union was democratic were they able to . do this. But now the so-called liberal element are attempting to change the structure. The majority of other unions have appointments rather than elections from the lowest paid office to the highest. The N.U.G.M.W. is a prime example. On three occasions as a shop steward I reported my area official to the district for negligence and received no acknowledgement whatsoever. In lay conferences we find retired officials up to 70+ who have a vote.
“Again, union officials sometimes pay more attention to political or personal aims than to their proper functions. Why doesn't the rank and file take action then? Simple, because they are bound hand and foot by the rule book which reduces the Magna Carta to science fiction. I could quote many examples but space would not permit, I would only add that the British worker will not be stopped from striking, whether it be legal or illegal. It is the only weapon he has to keep both union and employer in line. When the actions of these bodies individually or combined are in his mirid unjust or arrived at without proper communication with him, he will strike, If strikes are illegal, there will be no difference, for the British worker from any part of the U.K., indeed anyone in the U.K., will almost iwariably be prepared to suffer a greater injustice to correct a minor one, and I thank God we have that quality.
Samual Smyth (Belfast)