Orders of the Day — Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 12 February 1946.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr George Isaacs Mr George Isaacs , Southwark North 12:00, 12 February 1946

I cannot be answerable for what everybody says. I was talking about the rank and file with whom I was associated. Those people still believe in what they did. They believed it then, and they believe it now, and what they did was merely in order to show sympathy to their fellows. This much can be said, and I say it at the risk of misrepresentation even from my own friends, that experience has taught us that general strikes are silly things. The strike was never meant to coerce the Government. But it was not the sensible way to go about things. You cannot settle a dispute by punching a fellow on the nose and talking about it afterwards. The best way is to talk about it first, and then get it settled. After all is said and done, the history of the workers' movement has been a long history of struggle against bad conditions and adversity. The word "striker" is not a name for something objectionable; it is merely the term used to describe a man exercising his rights to refuse to work. If a man has not the right to strike, he will be a serf. If I had the time, I would tell my own experience of the growth of trade unionism in the industry with which I am associated. In 1901, we had to work over 70 hours to earn£1 a week, and 36 of those 70 hours were worked straight off. We never heard any employer say, "You are working too long." It was only when we got the union organised, and struck against that system, that we get a settlement. But I am happy to say that, having gone through that time by showing that we are quite willing to fight, we have got to the point where we can settle matters by discussion and understanding.

That brings me to the point about legislative action. Why do we want a political fund? We want it not simply to push the particular case of our own movement—though if we wished to do that, why should we not? We want a political fund to do the things which can best be done by Parliament. Right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite cannot have it both ways. They cannot say, "You must not have a strike if things do not go right and you must not have political action." During the years in which I have known anything about this job, we have gradually edged away from the industrial strike into the political field. It may be asked "What have we got by it?" We have got a lot. Some hon. Gentlemen opposite have a tender heart for the fellow who will not pay his contribution. Remember, he gets all that we got for ourselves. Legislation was required to get workmen's compensation, and I say at once that we did not get all this from one political party. A great deal of the social amelioration we have got has come from the Conservative Party, as from the other Parties, but it only came when we had a few on these benches to drive home our case—workmen's compensation, safety and welfare legislation, trade boards for the sweated undertakings. Do hon. Members remember the cases of "phossy jaw" in the East end of London? I had an aunt who made match-boxes in her own home, slaving for 16 hours a day for which she received 10s. a week. It is for things like these we wanted legislation and to protect our young persons, and to provide for unemployment and sickness benefit.

There is still much to be done. We have mining legislation only by Act of Parliament; the workman's right to inspection in the mines; the checkweighmen. Fancy having to go to Parliament to get power to watch someone, to see that the boss is not cheating. I cannot speak from my own experience but some may remember the fight for the Plimsoll line on the ships. Men went down to the sea in coffins, not in ships, until Parliament gave them the Plimsoll line. Recently there has been the necessity for the safety belt for window cleaners. Even those little things require legislation. We want that legislation and, when we get these laws of protection, they protect the non-unionists as well as the unionists. Today, new industries, new processes, bring new diseases, and therefore we want more legislation now than in the past to take care of those industrial diseases, not only to give us compensation but also to give us proper opportunities for the medical profession to be properly trained in those special diseases.

There is no need for me to dilate very much on the question of the sympathetic strike because I think that where it is a genuine sympathetic strike there is no real opposition to it, but it is very difficult to see where a sympathetic strike should begin and end. Let me tell the House of something which is happening today in the hotels in the West End of London. At the very suggestion of having a trade union ticket, men are out on their necks before they know where they are. Yes, in places where the highest possible prices are charged, where employees work unreasonably long hours, 60, 70 or 80 hours a week for from 10s. to 30s. wages, making these up with what money they can cadge from other people; in this industry which this House has decided by passing the Catering Wages Act should be tackled. A few weeks ago a girl cashier in one of these hotels was discovered to be a steward of her union collecting contributions. They sacked her late at night, and when she protested and said she had nowhere to go— she happened to be a girl from Ireland—she was threatened that the police would be brought in unless she got out. I can certify this case for I have investigated it. The explanation was given that they had to sack her to make way for another one of their girls who was coming back from the Services. Ultimately, another girl came and took her job but she came from another hotel and had never been in the Services and had never been a cashier before.

One hon. Member referred to the spirit of Tolpuddle. Here is another case of a hall porter in a hotel, an ex-Serviceman after the last war, 15 years in their service, and then he was caught speaking to the chambermaid because they were discussing joining a union