The Labor Government found itself in the middle of a rip-roaring open-shop v. closed-shop fight last week. On the open-shop side hovered management and Britain's bevy of small, independent unions. On the closed-shop side hulked the big unions. The issue: Can the Government, of which the big unions are the mainstay, use its powers to enjoin the closed shop?
The swinging started over a dozen individualistic tram conductors, members of the small Passenger Workers' Union. They had staunchly refused to join the big Transport & General Workers' Union. Just as the Labor Government lifted wartime restrictions on the transport and mining...