Steelmen knock Gunter?

The Editorial in the current issue of Man and Metal, the notably cautious journal of the Iron and Sceel Trades Confederation, sternly criticises the Ministry of Labour's evidence to the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations, "A great deal of attention is given in the evidence to the subject of unofficial strikes which, says the Ministry, are held by a large body of opinion as being the main defect in industrial relations in this country. Some people think that unofficial strikes should be made illegal and there are, of course, those who would like to see all strikes outlawed, These views, however, are not supported by the Ministry which points out that apart from the impracticabllity of pursuing such a course, attempts at putting large numbers of trade unionists in jail would hardly be conducive to good industrial relationSesceces The Ministry does, however, lend some support to the modified suggestion that pressure should be brought to bear on trade unions which do less than they could to prevent unofficial disputes arising and that this pressure might be exerted by subjecting the union concerned to a defined penalty relating to the duration of the unofficial strike. By supporting this idea, the Ministry, although emphasising in its evidence that the causes of unofficial strikes do not always lie on the employees! side, is tacitly, if paradoxically. accepting the view so often encouraged by the manner in which strikes are covered by press and television - that the blame rests always on the unions, It would, we submit, be manifestly unfair to penalise a “nion for not speedily bringingto an end a dispute provoked by bad and inefficient ianagement. Yet there is no suggestion that in such circumstances managemenus should be penalised, It seems, therefore, that while the Ministry is quite prepared to support the idea that trade unions should be penalised, it regards it as sufficient, so far as management is concerned, merely to drew attention to the desirability of raising the standards of personnel management and more widely disseminating available knowledge about workpeoplets attitudes and the most appropriate pro= cedures for hanéling the labour forces, in the hope that this knowledge would be acted upon," It should not escape any trade unionist's attention that the man responsible for this evidence is the Minister, Mr.Gunter, He has clearly forgotten where his allegiance should lie,