RAILWAY STRIKE THREAT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27225, 17 December 1953, Page 11

RAILWAY STRIKE THREAT

Talks In London Today (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, December 16. Rail executives and railway union leaders will face each other across a conference table in London today to consider a Government formula for settling Britain’s threatened Christmas rail strike. They agreed to come together after Sir Walter Monckton, the Minister of Labour, had spent two days in urgent conciliatory efforts.

The strike, called to begin at midnight on Sunday, would wreck Christmas mailing arrangements, dislocate

the transport of food and vital materials and upset the holiday plans of hundreds of thousands of people. Mr Jim Campbell, secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, said late last night after a meeting of his executive that only “something tangible” could bring about a settlement. “No assurance short of cash will meet our requirements,” he added. The “Daily Telegraph” today described the chances of a settlement of the wage dispute, in which the railwaymen are claiming a 15 per cent, increase, as remote, but not hopeless. Executives of the employing body, the British Transport Commission, led by the chairman (General Sir Brian Robertson) will meet the chiefs of the union at the Ministry of Labour. Later, two other rail unions, the Society Of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen,, and the Transport and Salaried Staffs’ Association, neither of whom have issued strike orders, will join the talks.