Sin, Strikes and Sir Tom O'Brien

'Go ye amongst the sinners,' says the good Book. Not loth to accept the advice, the ex-president of the Trades Union Congress, Sir Tom O'Brien, is now writing in the 'News of the World.'

Midst the sex and sin, the portly, sybaritic O'Brien denounces unofficial strikes.

Assuring his readers and editors that: 'The strike weapon . . . is no longer of the same validity as it was two generations ago' Sir Tom prattles on about 'far-sighted industrialists and good-spirited public men.'

Unfortunately for our prophet, events have lodged a sturdy and accurately-placed boot in the centre of his well-upholstered posterior.

Within 24 hours of O'Brien's article appearing, came the announcement from British Transport Commission boss, General Sir Brian Robertson, that any wage increase to railway men will be made retrospective. The Financial Times described this as an 'unprecedented step.'

The railwaymen have secured this because they ignored the advice of their general secretary Greene and the philosophy of O'Brien and threatened the B.T.C. with a one-day stoppage.

Last week the Fords (Dagenham) management blandly informed their press shop workers that they were introducing a three-shift system. The workers in the the press shop retorted by walking out.

On Monday morning over 5,000 men had been laid off and production at the giant factory was being rapidly brought to a halt. Now Fords have decided to postpone the three-shift system.

What made the B.T.C. bend and Fords retreat was not the reasonableness of O'Brien and the other Right-wing leaders but the strike weapon—old-fashioned or not!

Denouncing strikes is not a new practice for O'Brien. On the eve of the last general election he made headlines in the national press with a statement attacking the British Oxygen Strike.