CATHOLIC WORKERS' NOTEBOOK

RAILWAY CATERING GRADES
GREAT dissatisfaction is being
expressed by the catering grades of the National Union of Railwaymen as to the size of their wage packet At their National Conference in London on Sunday over 600 attendants, cooks and conductors rejected the new wage agreement introduced On May 3.
In place of tips a Ilj per cent. service charge was allowed to be added to bills until last Monday. With a basic wage of £3 75. 6d., and a guaranteed bonus of £3 from the service charge, a dining car attendant's wage averaged about £6 7s. 6d.
The new wage agreement increases the basic wage to £4 8s. a week, but without any bonus and only with tips can the dining car men make up their wages to the old rate.
This is made more difficult by a new 10 per cent. surcharge, which has been added to bills by the Railway Executive to pay for the wage increases.
ACCIDENTS IN INDUSTRY HEARING that there was an in" crease in the number of fatal accidents among workpeople in the United Kingdom, I looked up figures for March this year and found that 14e deaths from accidents in the course of employment were reported. There were III in February, 1948, and 117 in March, 1947. Twenty of the fatal accidents in March took place in the railway service.
E.T.U. CONFERENCE THE Electrical Trades Union Conference at Great Yarmouth this week brought the usual protests against the anti-Communists* drive, within the Trade Union Movement. Frank Foulkes, the president of the union, in his opening address stated that there was no infiltration into the E.T.U., as all its officials were apprenticed craftsmen and admitted to the union on that basis.
That of course proves nothing. except in providing the Daily Worker with copy to bluff other workers. Communists are normally good trade unionists and it would be silly to deny it. But what are their motives?
Is it to free the British worker from capitalistic bondage? The answer is, definitely, no. It has been said time and time again that the Communists owe no allegiance to any national government or peoples. It is therefore useless for the rank and file of the working-class to be misled any longer.
Infiltration has been going on in the E.T.U., as in other unions, and
with a measure of success. Mr, Foulkes would not have condemned the anti-Communists' drive if he had not been supported by many of the extreme left element in his union.
Mr. Foulkes and others in the trade union movement must realise that if they preach free speech they must allow for Right Wing Labour leaders, as well as Communist Labour leaders.
NATSOPA BALLOT THE following results of the
Ballot for the election of General Secretary of the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants have been announced:
H. Good, 6,784; I. A. Harley, 3,614; R. W. Briginshaw, 3,326; C. J. Young, 2,192.
As a clear majority of the votes cast had not been obtained by one of the contestants for the post of General Secretary a second ballot will be held from to-day (Friday) and Monday, May 24. Messrs. I. A. Harley and H. Good will be the only candidates.