Prices and Incomes

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 3 May 1967.

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Photo of Mr Cyril Bence Mr Cyril Bence , Dunbartonshire East 12:00, 3 May 1967

I know that my right hon. Friend will answer any legitimate question put to him, and give a very good answer at that. He always give me a good answer when I put a question to him. However, as long as organisations in Scotland or anywhere else, whatever they may be, always insist on having separate negotiations, they are always liable to be caught in a changed situation.

We have heard much today about workers working alongside each other and yet receiving different rates of pay. For a long time I worked in one of the biggest aircraft factories in Europe as a journeyman toolmaker. This was in 1938 when I worked alongside toolmakers who were doing a job on behalf of a firm from the Midlands and yet getting 4d. an hour less than I was, although they were in the same union. The extraordinary thing about it was that any attempt by the union to level up their rate to mine was refused by the employers. The only time when the employers agreed was when the then Government said that it was undesirable because of the existing situation.

In my industrial life I always found employers always ready to raise wages of certain groups of workers when the Government of the day, perhaps because of the crisis of war, were opposed to such an increase. The same was true about the movement of labour and the Emergency Orders during the war.