BRITISH LABOUR DISPUTES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26362, 5 March 1951, Page 7

BRITISH LABOUR DISPUTES

Munition Factories J Affected

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (&ee. 9 p.m.) LONDON, March S. .Token stoppages and overtime and piecework bans spread through British arms and engineering factories to«day, as employers threatened to shut their doors against workers adopting these tactics.

Five thousand workers at the Vickers Armstrong plant in Newcastle-on-Tyne want their works committees to impose an immediate overtime and piecework ban. Stoppages and bans are already effective in other engineering plants in London and north-west England.

Special Branch officers from Scotland Yard are watching for deliberate attempts to slow down vital production of arms and export goods. Political agitators are being blamed for many stoppages.

Employers report cases of workers staging one-hour strikes, and standing idle by their machines.

Ten London factory-owners threatened to shut their doors against workers refusing overtime jobs on vital rearmament production. “We will stand no more from the Comiqunists who are intimidating the workers,” said Mr Jack Frye, a director of a London machine-tool firm, which gave notice to 700 men yesterday. “The men can go back to work and settle their wage claims round a table, or we will close our factoriel."