Trade Unionism, Full Employment and Inflation

As a result of the postwar experience the belief has grown that one of the strongest impediments to the use of monetary and fiscal powers for the maintenance of a high national income is the increased strength of trade unions and their influence over the wage level. It is feared that trade union policy will compel a continued annual increase in wage rates exceeding the rise in physical productivity, thus making price inflation a necessary concomitant of full employment and forcing the unpalatable alternative of underemployment or inflation. We shall, therefore, inquire into the influence of unionism in the past and what it is likely to be in the future.