Labour's response to unions attacked

The Labour Party response is powerful unions was attacked this week by Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Conservative candidate for Finchley and Friern Barnet.

She told a meeting at St. Mary's Church Hall, Finchley, that most people believed some unions had too much power.

“The Labour Party's response has been simply to surrender to every demand in the hope that in this way they can buy industrial peace.”

She added that this did not lead to fewer days lost through strikes, and therefore the social contract would not mean less industrial trouble.

“If militants seek to defy a social contract, a voluntary policy or a statutory policy, the problem is the same whichever government is in power. Ultimately, it is not governments who pay the price but the people.”

Monopoly

“If very large wage claims are demanded by those who have a monopoly they will turn up in a few months as increased prices for their fellow workers, the housewife and other consumers.

“It would be union monopoly, holding the citizen, not the Government, to ransom.”

Mrs Thatcher said that the Economist magazine had costed each of the three major party policies—and found the Conservative policy cost less and represented a more efficient use of resources available.