XN000022-1980-01-24 — Page 21

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factor is often used by some employers, arguing in favour of imported labour

and in maintaining a relatively low wage structure. It is also used as an

argument against any strengthening of organisations representing labour.

What is now so often overlooked in sophisticated arguments about our economy

is that its success is, and will always be, based on the hard work, versatility

and pragmatism of our work force. And when we say "work force", we are talking

about our people. People who expect and have a right to share fully in the

affluence of their community, people who have a right to put their grievances

and worries to their employers and to be treated with sympathy and understanding

when they du so.

If you

The extraordinary fact about Hong Kong in 1980 is that such basic

elements of good employer/management relations as these will undoubtedly be

regarded as "dangerous" by a substantial number of Hong Kong employers.

find that difficult to believe you should have sat in my chair over the past

few months and listened to the dire warnings I have been given over the "dangerous"

development of representation or if you prefer "trade unionism" in the civil

service, the effect this is having, or may have, on the private sector, upon

our competitiveness and there from upon the whole economy of Hong Kong.

In case I should be misunderstood, I do not believe that the

development of particular patterns of imported trade unionism would

necessarily be beneficial to Hng Kong: workurs, to employers or to the

prosperity of this placu generally but this is by no means to condemn

organisations which look after the interests of our workforce, and which

strive to improve labour-management relations. As our community matures,

demands more of a say in its own affairs, and expects a greater measure

of social equality, it is very natural that such organisations should develop

and flourish.

/I have