53. Colonel NEWMANasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware of the amount of preventable unemployment that is being caused by trade union minor officials or shop stewards interfering with the execution of work by men who do not, or who refuse to, belong to some particular trade union; that in Coventry an agreement that had been arrived at between the engineering trade and the Daimler Company had to be abandoned owing to the action of other trade union officials, and a large number of men kept out of employment; that a shop steward of the Hackney Borough Council's electricity department recently compelled a master-man electrician to desist from wiring some premises at Hackney because he did not belong to his own particular union, which action of the shop steward was confirmed by the borough electrical engineer; and, in view of the prevailing want of employment, what action does he propose to take?
§ The MINISTER of LABOUR (Dr. Macnamara)I have been asked to reply. In the first case to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers, I understand that it was the officials of the union to which the workpeople belonged, who intervened. The second case, I am informed, is now the subject of legal proceedings.