Truce

Britain's Labor government and British labor were heading for a showdown. For more than two years, the trade unions had grudgingly gone along with the government's policy of virtually freezing wages & prices. But when devaluation of the pound thawed out some prices and sent them climbing upwards, the unions' rank & file rebelled. Britain's T.U.C. (Trades Union Congress) presented new demands: higher wages, more government subsidies to keep food prices down, additional taxes to cut down business profits.

Last week, T.U.C. leaders faced their government's key men in Sir Stafford Cripps's study in the House of Commons. Beside Cripps at his maroon-topped desk sat Ernest Bevin and Aneurin Bevan, both good union men. Ernie Bevin assumed the role in which he feels most at home: that of the table-thumping, tough-spoken bargainer. This time he was arguing for the employer's side, i.e., the government. When the T.U.C. leaders reiterated their demands, Bevin rumbled that it was up to the workers, through toil and discipline, to support their government.

The T.U.C. leaders ruefully gave in, agreed to a freeze of wage levels for one year. The T.U.C. has no authority to make its decisions binding on its members, but it looked as if most of its unions would stick to the agreement. British labor was still learning the hard lesson that Britain's Socialist government could be a good deal tougher than the bosses with whom Ernie Bevin bargained in his trade-union days.

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