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the decisions of the committee are final. Unauthorized strikes are rare in the industry and have been quickly ended with the cooperation of union officials.

The agreements are terminable upon 3-months' notice by either side. Up to the present time the two sides have had no great difficulty in reaching an agreement upon modification of the basic agreement.

(2) THE PROVINCIAL PRESS AND GENERAL PRINTING

The Newspaper Society brought together the publishers of most of the provincial papers, and signed its first national agreement in 1921. Before this period there had been a number of city and district agreements, and the employers felt the need of national negotiations and a single agreement, providing, however, for six different grades of wages for different sections of the country. The Newspaper Society, in negotiating agreements with the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation, usually acts jointly with the British Federation of Master Printers.

The Printing and Kindred Trades Federation holds an annual conference and in addition has an executive committee that meets every month. To either the annual conference or the executive committee every matter or dispute concerning more than one union or more than one locality is referred. There is within the federation adequate machinery for the compulsory arbitration of jurisdictional disputes, including those concerned with the right of a certain craft to a particular class of work.

The federation negotiates with the employer groups a national agreement covering all mechanical trades and the journalists and specifying hours, basic rates, and certain other conditions of employment. It maintains a strike fund for use in case of a general dispute in the industry, and which can also be drawn on by individual member unions if an approved restricted strike is in process. Wage changes for particular crafts are conducted separately. There has been no change in the basic level of wages throughout the industry since 1924. A general reduction was proposed by the employers in 1932 but this proposal was subsequently withdrawn. Except for the 1926 general strike and a few local stoppages the last strike in the industry took place in 1911. Following the 1926 strike clauses similar to those covering the London newspapers, referred to above, were added to the basic agreement. The national agreement on hours has moved in 1911 from 521⁄2 to 50; in 1919 it was made 48, and a 2 weeks' vacation with pay was added; and in 1937 a 5-day week of 45 hours was established.

In order to assist not only in the negotiation of changes in the terms of the basic agreement, but also disputes arising either over the interpretation of its clauses or local grievances, the industry established in 1919 a Joint Industrial Council of the Printing and Allied Trades of Great Britain and Ireland. This joint council is an association of employers who are members of the British Federation of Master Printers and who employ members of a federated trade union, and the trade unions affiliated to the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation.

The council, consisting of 60 members, 30 elected by the employers and 30 by the various trade unions, meets at least once a quarter and has full power to consider all matters connected with the industry. No one outside the industry is connected with it, and the positions of chairman and vice chairman are held alternatively by representatives of the two sides.

In the case of any dispute of a national character in which there has been a failure to agree and which might lead to aggressive action, the parties to the dispute shall immediately advise the joint secretaries, who shall arrange for a meeting of its conciliation committee within 7 days.

The committee is expected to issue a joint finding. This finding is an opinion which is not enforceable on either side. As a matter of fact it has been accepted in all but one case since 1919 when the Joint Industrial Council was established. On one occasion the committee rendered two opinions, but the matter was referred back to them with instructions to evolve a joint finding.

If the conciliation committee fails to effect a settlement, the committee shall call a special meeting of the council within 14 days. During that period, the status quo must be maintained on both sides.

Local disputes and grievances are handled first by a district committee. In each important town this district committee consists of an equal number of employers and workers. It is entrusted with executive powers to deal with matters within and concerning its respective area. In case of nonagreement the matter is referred to the Joint Industrial Council. The constitution provides:

In the case of any dispute of a local character, no strike, lock-out, or other aggressive or coercive action shall be taken until the matter in question has been placed by the consent of all the parties before the district committee or, failing such consent, before the conciliation committee of the council and pending such reference the dispute shall remain in abeyance, the members of the union (or unions) to remain at work and the employer (or employers) concerned not to persist beyond the point of protest. Both parties shall conform to normal conditions pending the reference.

The joint council, as other Whitley councils elsewhere described, also considers methods of improving the economic positions of the trade and the effects of such improvements on the workers involved. For instance, in 1928 it issued a report recommending that:

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(1) Employers should be urged to improve the efficiency of their works by scrapping old and installing new machinery and adopting improved methods of organization and production of every kind.

(2) Modern time-saving machinery and other methods to reduce the cost of production are beneficial to all concerned. Employees should cooperate with the employers in the use of these methods.

(3) Employers are recommended, when time-saving machinery is introduced, to endeavour to retain all their employees by transfer to other duties.

(4) Employees should be encouraged to make suggestions, through works advisory committees, for improving methods of working and factory amenities, and should be suitably rewarded for suggestions adopted.

See Industrial Relations in Great Britain, J. H. Richardson, International Labor Office, 1938, pp. 141-142.

9. POTTERY

The pottery industry has been strongly organized on both employer and employee sides since about 1918, when, under the stimulus of the Whitley Reports elsewhere referred to, the Joint Industrial Council of the Pottery Industry was formed. In pre-war days the industry was weakly organized, and the various unions met separately with the then existing seven employer groups.

In 1918, after the formation of the council all of the manufacturers' associations united to form the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation, and the various unions amalgamated to form the National Society of Pottery Workers.

The council today is composed of 30 members chosen by the manufacturers' federation, 30 by the national society, and 5 honorary and 5 co-opted members. Meetings of the council are held quarterly, all expenses being borne equally by the two sides.

The main purpose of the council is "the advancement of the pottery industry and all connected with it, by the association in its government of all engaged in the industry." On its formation a number of objects were included in its constitution, and the following committees deal with certain matters and problems relating to those objects: organization; demobilization; wages and conditions; statistical and enquiries; research, inventions and designs; and executive, general purposes and finance. The research committee has done significant work on health problems connected with the industry. An apprenticeship committee was subsequently appointed, and from time to time various ad hoc committees have been set up to deal with different subjects. The council, on occasion, has taken joint action in seeking legislation favorable to the industry.

A unique feature of this council is that through its agency, manufacturers from time to time furnish information as to the average percentage of profits on turn-over; relation of profits and turn-over to capital; average earnings; details of the numbers and classes of both sexes engaged in the industry, and other collective statistics.

The first object in the constitution of the council is the consideration of means whereby all manufacturers and operatives shall be brought within their respective associations, this being the basic principle necessary to an effective system of collective bargaining and to the formation of industrial councils. To this end posters are periodically displayed on factories recommending all operatives to join the National Society of Pottery Workers, and manufacturers are requested to grant facilities to the trade-union officials to go on the works at meal times, and at such other times as may be convenient, for propaganda work and enrollment. The manufacturers on their part have taken measures, with great success, to increase the membership of their associations and of their federation."

Although in the constitution of the council there is provision for the consideration of wage questions, the union and employer organizations considered at the outset that it would be better to continue the methods then existing, i. e., direct negotiation between the organizations. Annual negotiations therefore take place between the specially designated representatives of the two sides. On three occasions only during its 17 years of existence have the services of the council

From a published memorandum by the council submitted to the Committee on Industry and Trade, July 1925.

been requested on wage questions; in 1920, when its recommendations were adopted by both sides; during 1924; and again in 1931.

Grievances and local disputes are in practice never considered by the council, and representatives of the union and employer organizations informed us that the success of the council had largely been due to the fact that it did not deal with these questions or, save in very exceptional instances, with wage matters. As a result of excluding the handling of controversies from the normal functions of the council an atmosphere is maintained in which the joint collaborative work of the council may most fruitfully be carried on.

In 1924 arbitration procedure was adopted which has been twice resorted to and is still in force. When the negotiations between the employers' and workers' organizations arrive at a deadlock, by requisition in accordance with the constitution, a special meeting of the council is convened. A special committee is then appointed of six representatives from each side, together with three of the honorary members, who are given power to decide on any question in case agreement by the representative members of the committee is not reached, each party agreeing to abide by the decision.

There have been no major strikes in the industry since 1900. There was, however, a sectional strike in 1908. This is the last time strikebreakers were used in the industry. The union at that time used mass picketing to prevent workers from entering the plants. Few unauthorized strikes have occurred in the industry, and these were too small to be of any consequence and were usually promptly settled.

Annual agreements cover wages and hours. These agreements continue in force unless there is a 6 weeks' notice of proposed change prior to the termination of the agreement.

The proportion of piece-rate workers to day-wage workers is approximately 80 percent. Basic rates and "plussages" in terms of percentage are settled nationally, and individual manufacturers can ask for variations of wage scales of plussages locally. This can be done by local arbitration. At intervals a survey is made of the actual earnings of the different grades of workers throughout the industry. A week's holiday with pay is provided for. This was introduced at the suggestion of the employers. The holiday pay does not depend upon the earnings of the individual, but is a fixed sum irrespective of earnings.

APPENDIX B

THE STATUTORY LAW IN GREAT BRITAIN AS TO

(I) THE STATUS OF LABOR UNIONS (INCLUDING BOTH REGISTERED AND UNREGISTERED UNIONS) AND OF THEIR AGREEMENTS

[Footnotes at end of statutory law]

Prior to 1824 labor unions, if organized and carried on for any such purposes as they serve today, had no legal status. By a number of general and special acts of Parliament (inclusively referred to as the Combination Laws), as well as under the common-law doctrine of conspiracy, criminal liability attached to participation by workers in concerted action to better their working conditions. Such combinations were considered to be contrary to public policy and were treated as conspiracies in restraint of trade. Agreements to effect such purposes were void or voidable.

The Combinations Law Repeal Act of 18251 repealed these criminal Combination Laws and in their place established penalties for the use of violence, threats or intimidation, molestation, or obstruction in connection with attempts to regulate employer-worker relations. At the same time the act legalized voluntary collective action, in the form of trade agreements dealing with wages and hours, by providing that the penalties prescribed in the act should not extend (1) to meetings or combinations of workers (or of employers) for the sole purpose of consulting upon wages or hours of work or (2) to agreements among the workers (or employers) as to wages or hours of work; and that persons so meeting for that purpose, or entering into any such agreement, should not be liable to any prosecution or penalty for so doing under any law or statute. But such agreements, and the activities of such combinations, remained under the ban of unlawful restraint of trade and were still subject to the charge of conspiracy.

It was not until the passage of the Trade Union Act of 1871 that the purposes of such combinations were relieved from the charges of conspiracy in restraint of trade, and that agreements to effect such purposes were made lawful. That act provides that the purposes of any trade-union (i. e., any association of workers or employers for "statutory" purposes) "shall not by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, be deemed to be unlawful, so as to render any member of such trade-union liable to criminal prosecution for conspiracy or otherwise," or "so as to render void or voidable any agreement or trust."

While the act thus makes such agreements lawful, it denies to them the sanction of direct enforcement in the courts. It provides that nothing in the act shall enable any court to entertain any legal pro

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