TOUGH STRUGGLE AHEAD
By Harry Ratner
1958The NewsletterHarry Ratner Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
But they were loyal to the principle of nationalization. At least the hated bosses had apparently been shifted out of control, and nationalization would mean better conditions coupled with permanence of employment.
Such were the ideas. that have been dominant for the fast twelve years.
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The old bosses had not really been removed, because they were still exploiting the men and the industry through compensation. And the National Coal Board was becoming more and more bureaucratic and top-heavy.
But these facts did not detract from the feeling of permanence that most people had.
There grew up the feeling, especially among younger miners, that no matter what happened in other industries the mines would not be affected. But recently all that has been rudely shattered.
-British industry has expanded rapidly since the war because ACCORDING to the Daily Worker report, the chairman of the engineering employers ‘looked startled’ when the trade union representative in the course of applying for a ‘substantial’ increase in wages stated that ‘the least’ they could accept was 6 per cent. , No wonder! He must have been even pleasantly surprised! Since when have union negotiators—even Right-wing ones like Carron—climbed down so quickly at the very start of negotiations?
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The demand for a ‘substantial’ increase is in itself already dangerously vague. What is ‘substantial’? 15. per cent.? 10 per cent.? Certainly well above 6 per cent.
Why, even the ‘3 per cent, unions’ on the railway started by asking for 10 per cent. Before Greene and Co. allowed the (Continued at foot of next page)