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From International Socialism, No. 62, September 1973, p. 7.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg, with thanks to Paul Blackledge.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
THERE IS agreement within the ruling class over the need to push back workers’ consumption. There is, however, confusion over how best to do so. The problem is that while the holding back of wages has allowed profits to rise, the £1 plus 4 per cent norm has had deleterious effects on particular companies. It has led to industrial disputes and cuts in production for some firms at a time when their markets are expanding rapidly. Given that they do not think the boom will last indefinitely, they would prefer to avoid these. And it has also prevented some sections of the car industry – for instance, the Leyland commercial vehicle plant in Lancashire – from introducing new methods of work measurement, because the norm does not allow them the leeway needed to buy off the workforce.
What such firms want of Phase Three are concessions for productivity payments. Their desire is reflected in the statements about the next stage of the freeze put out by the CBI.
A productivity let-out would make many trade union leaders happy as well. They would be able to satisfy a little more of their members discontent over wages without coming into conflict with particular employers over much. And the negative effects on workers, in terms of harder workloads and cuts in employment, would not be as immediately apparent as cuts in living standards.
However, the elements in the ruling class who are concerned about its overall economic position are not at all keen on a further round of productivity dealing. It is relatively easy to police a norm of, say, seven per cent. But it is virtually impossible for a few Pay Board officials to investigate hundreds, if not thousands, of productivity bargains to ensure that they are not phoney, merely providing a cloak for employers who want to buy off shop floor discontent or attract scarce labour, to the detriment of the overall needs of big business. Once this has happened in some factories, the pressure for parity elsewhere could rapidly get out of hand.
That is why the NIESR has advised the government strongly that ‘if particular companies which made productivity agreements were allowed to break through the incomes policy ceiling, then probably the whole policy would collapse.’
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Last updated on 1 March 2015