Word: wages
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This contract represents an agreement to moderate wage demands that Wilson wrung out of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) last month. But some of the largest unions were publicly unenthusiastic about the contract. If elected, Wilson may find himself in a situation similar to the one in which he found himself in 1966, when he was forced to introduce wage controls after a few months in office...
...even if he wanted to. Wilson's appeal rests primarily on his image as the one politician on friendly enough terms with the Union leaders to keep them in check. If Labour is in power, so the argument goes, the unions will not humiliate the government by forcing large wage increases. The Conservatives, on the other hand, will exacerbate the situation the way they did during the coal strike last winter. Wilson's power over the unions, however, has largely disappeared. Not only have the big unionists--like Len Murray, secretary-general of the TUC, Hugh Scanlon of the engineers...
Both major parties are pledged to a limited transfer (devolution) of power to an elected Scottish assembly, but neither are willing to grant economic autonomy. Both major parties are pledged to limit the inflationary effect of trade union wage claims by one means or another--the Tories place their trust in legal regulation and the Labourites in a formal but unlegislated "social contract" between the unions and the government. But neither party, once in power, will possess any means short of armed force to carry out its intentions. Both major parties are pledged to halt the staggering deterioration of British...
...unlikely however that Parliament will approve such measures in their present form. The Labour leadership has proposed it only under intense pressure from the party's militant wing. Some party leaders no doubt intend to use the wealth tax as an election ploy--a voluntary wage-control program concealed as an attack on social injustice. Others may be committed to a genuinely new "social contract" between the unions and the government...
...same end will be reached, the unions know, if a Conservative government is elected. Then the scenario will go as follows. Conservative wage controls will be resisted by crippling strikes that will further weaken British industry. A Conservative government will find it much easier than a Labour one, of course, to obtain mountains of foreign credits, but the indulgence of foreign bankers will run out eventually. In order to reduce costs some companies will attempt to lay off workers; meanwhile, other firms will go bust under the impact of tactical strikes and the slump. Nationalization of both kinds of companies...