Word: wages
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...battle between labor and management in Britain took a small, hopeful turn last week. At the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress in Blackpool, delegates representing more than ten million workers voted to accept Prime Minister Harold Wilson's recently announced program of wage restraints (see box page 61). Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey called it "a unique achievement" and there was euphoric speculation that the "I'm All Right Jack" era of union truculence might be over. The optimism is probably premature. The social conflicts that underlie Britain's labor problems...
...work-hosts have been fighting each other instead of chaos. Indeed, the conflict of power between workers and employers has produced such widespread havoc in recent years that it has come close to destroying Britain's future as an industrial nation. Inflation, fueled in part by excessive union wage demands, is running at a disastrous 26.3% rate, and Britain's very economic survival depends...
Even more objectionable than the proposed wage reform was the industrial-relations expert who was selected to negotiate it−Fred Straw. Peach describes Straw as "a hatchet man," and even John Owen concedes that he was a rather aloof, overbearing man who gave the unions the false impression that "shock troops of management were coming in to sort things...
...sober assembly of 1,000 delegates who had come to Blackpool for the annual conference of Britain's Trades Union Congress. Casting their votes on behalf of Britain's 10.3 million trade union members, the delegates overwhelmingly ratified an "incomes policy" that will limit workers to wage increases of no more than $12.60 a week in the next twelve months. The vote was 6.9 million to 3.4 million...
...intend to combat by reflating the economy. With unemployment already heading toward 1.5 million and beyond, the unions' resolve to cooperate with the government's program may weaken well before the twelve-month agreement expires. Left-wing Union Boss Ken Gill has already protested that "this wage control is about as voluntary as rape." His was a minority voice last week, but it may not remain...