DOCK STRIKE PLANS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27665, 23 May 1955, Page 11

DOCK STRIKE PLANS

Union Rejects Appeals (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 pan.) LONDON, May 21. Leaders of 15,000 dock workers pledged to strike in four British ports on Monday completed their plans today after rejecting widespread appeals to call off the stoppage. The appeals had come from the Prime Minister,. Sir Anthony Eden, leaders of the 8,000,000-strong Trades Union Congress, and port employers throughout the country. Sir Anthony Eden had warned the dockers—due to strike in support of a bid for national recognition—that their stoppage would cause unemployment and public hardship and harm the nation’s economy. But the dock union leaders—the executive of the National Amalgamated Stevedores’ and Dockers’ Union —turned a deaf ear to all appeals, and leaders tonight announced: “The strike is on.” » But there was a gleam of hope in a parallel strike threat by 70,000 raf waymen, pledged to stop work next Saturday in support of a claim for a new wage scale. The rail union chiefs, heading the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, agreed to meet Sir Walter Monckton, Minister of Labour, on Tuesday to discuss their pay demands.