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It is necessary to stress the point that the origin and main activities of trade unions lie in the industrial field. The trade union movement is essentially an industrial movement, the structure and machinery of which are organically whole and distinct from those of the political Labour Party. Co-ordination of the trade union movement with the Labour Party on questions of policy which have both an industrial and a political bearing is effected through the National Council of Labour which is composed of representatives of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, of the Executive Committee
The Council meets of the Labour Party and of the Parliamentary Labour Party. regularly and the degree of co-ordinated action thus secured has been extended by the practice of exchanging representatives between the Labour Party Executive and the Trades Union Congress General Council on committees dealing with matters which have both industrial and political aspects.
III.
THE DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF COLLECTIVE RELATIONS
AND JOINT NEGOTIATING MACHINERY.
For many years after the passing of the Combination Laws Repcal Act of 1825, there was a tendency on the part of employers to resist the demands of trade unions for recognition, but from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards this resistence gradually weakened and the value of trade unions as a means towards industrial peace began to be appreciated.
With the growth of strong craft unions in various trades from about 1850 cnwards the recognition of trade unions for collective bargaining by individual employers and by employers' organisations extended rapidly and joint machinery for the discussion and settlement of differences began to be established in well organised industries.
A Royal Commission on Labour appointed in 1891 referred to the rapid extension of voluntary conciliation boards which had taken place, and recommended that the promotion of the general adoption of such joint machinery should be undertaken by a Government Department.
By 1914 well developed methods for negotiation and the settlement of disputes had been established in many important industries, such as iron and steel, engineering, cotton, and the boot and shoe, and in one or two sections of industry where wages were unduly low Trade Boards had been set up under the Act of 1909 and a system of joint relations developed under statutory control.
The growth of organisations on both sides during the war led to much progress in the development of negotiating machinery, and to a rapid extension of organised collective bargaining to many hitherto unorganised branches of industry.
It was clear that the post war adjustment to normal conditions might lead to problems in the relations between employers and employed, and in March, 1916, the Committee on Relations between Employers and Employed (generally known as the "Whitley" Committee) was set up as a Sub-Committee of the Cabinet Committee on Reconstruction, with the following terms of reference:-
"(i) To make and consider suggestions for securing a permanent improvement in
the relations between employers and workmen.
(ii) To recommend means for securing that industrial conditions affecting the relations between employers and workmen shall be systematically reviewed by those concerned, with a view to improving conditions in the future".
The recommendations contained in the five Reports of the Committee were of a far reaching nature and have played an important part in the extension and formation of joint negotiating machinery, the extension of the Trade Boards system, and the development of statutory machinery for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes.
The growth of collective relations and of joint negotiating machinery out- lined in the preceding paragraph has led to the existing position in which, it may be said, most of the manifold problems which arise in the ever changing
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