from David Robinson. Merger of Technicians! Unions Proposede Two militant white-collar unions, the Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians (ASSET) and the Association of Scientific Workers (AScW) are to amalgamate if their members give approval. A joint statement by their general secretaries said the executives had agreed unanimously to recommend the merger, which would create the biggest technicians' union in the.world. It would be called the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, with a membership of 80,000. The statement said it was expected this would rise to more than 100,000 within three years on the basis of the existing rate of growth of the two unions. Clive Jenkins, general secretary of ASSET, said the two unions were merging on the basis of complete equality with a joint executive composed of equal numbers from both sides. Although no date has been set for the proposed amalgamation, if the executives' recommendation is endorsed by ballots of the members of both unions it is likely to take place early next year.
White Collar Unions Supported. In a letter to The Financial Times, Monday July 3, Jack Jones, Assistant . Secretary of T&GW, emphasised the necessity for organising staff-workers in trade unions. _ He attacked the ‘harmful industrial myth that there is some fundamental distinction between the way in which the problems of manual workers and staff workers have to be dealt with.' '@ven if it were ever true that the staff worker's problems could be dealt with on an individual basis (and I suspect that "individual" here is a euphemism for "subservient") the plain facts are that the trend in staff organisation, takeovers, office design, and office machinery has created a situation where individual treatment of basic wages and conditions is more likely to represent favouritism than a proper means of handling these issues. The staff worker is just as likely, more so in some cases, to be made redun= dant in large numbers when industrial reorganisation occurs, and his wages are just as likely to be increased (or not increased) for a whole grade of employees as is his industrial counterpart........ Of course, as in the case of industrial workers, there are always individual problems that arise, but these are in fact much more equitably and effectively solved within the framework of a good collective basic agreement than in a jumble of salaries resented by many and understood by none. eeeceeeee White-collar trades unionism is moving rapidly ahead = despite the old myths.' Drop_in Wages for Construction Workers. The June Ministry of Labour Gazette gave the results of an enquiry into earnings and hours in the construction industries. It shows that average weekly earnings of adult male workers fell in the period June 1966 to January 1967. The drop in the wage packet varied from 13s 7d to 32s 9a a week. The reason given for the fallwas a decrease in hours worked, This varied from 1.8 hours for the skilled and qualified workers to 3.3 hours for "plusrated" men, helpers, mates and handymen.
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