39. Mr. Leeasked the Minister of Labour if he is aware that the principle of free collective bargaining between the nationalised industries and the trade unions is endangered by the new Government price and wages policy; and what steps he is taking to safeguard the negotiating machinery in these circumstances.
§ The Minister of Labour and National Service (Mr. Iain Macleod)The principle of free collective bargaining between the nationalised industries and the trade unions is in no way impaired by Government statements on the vital importance of defeating inflation and the conditions necessary to achieve that object.
Mr. LeeIf the right hon. Gentleman had heard the reply of the Minister of Agriculture to my hon. Friend the Member for Faversham (Mr. P. Wells), I wonder whether he would have given the same Answer. Is he aware that there has been no consultation with the unions whose members are working in the nationalised industries, and that the Government's efforts to prevent the employers 1379 from being able to concede a wage advance at all really means that it is a sham and farce for the unions to try to get any improvement in the conditions of their members, irrespective of the type of wages they are receiving?
§ Mr. MacleodI did hear my right hon. Friend's Answer to which the hon. Gentleman refers, and I adhere to the Answer which I have just given to the House. The other point I covered in my reply to the hon. Member for Leigh (Mr. Boardman) on 12th July, when I said that the responsibility of the nationalised industries remains exactly as it was before, and it is in any case, as the hon. Gentleman knows very well, in large part a statutory responsibility.