Painters! leader rejects 'early warning'

A.G.Austin, General Secretary of the painters' union,ASFD, complains in The Famters' Journal, that the incomes policy is not fulfilling its promises: "ee but has there been effective control over prices and profits? ...eunless some tangible offer is made on these points then no Declaration of Intent on Wages and Prices and Profits is likely to be successful. Last year the T.U.C. appealed to Congress for voluntary pause to consider all wege claims before their submission and this authority was conceded ..ecince that time, some of the largest unions of transport’ workers and railwaymen have had more to say in & practical way about the wages end of an incomes policy, and, if I am any judge, the last word has not yet been said. Some people fail to understand that it is the members that are the union, and while they may or may not support the Lebour Party, they are not prepared to give any Government a blank cheque. Our Union supported the General Council, like many others, in the belief that the voluntary authority given to the T.U.C. would be enough to strengthen their hands to prevent or oppose compulsion by Government legislation, and there would be the power to resist. In these circumstances, it is not true to say that those that opposed the General Council were egainst the T.U.C., the Government, or acting against the best interests of their members eny more than those who supported the General Council were paragons of virtue or semi-rustics with minds of peasants. All the views expressed and opinions held are as much to be respected, iste , sincerely held. Not all can be put into one bracket and referred to as "voes-men". I am heartily sick of this kind of unadulterated rubbish being peddled."