STEEL WORKS CLOSED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27676, 4 June 1955, Page 7

STEEL WORKS CLOSED

Industry Affected By Strike

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 930 pan.) LONDON, June 3. . "P 1 ® rst signs of industrial paralysis caused by s rail strike showed today when six Welsh works closed down. The works, which cannot get enough coal and scrap, will en ?P oyees maintenance jobs for a week in u he hope -that the dispute will be settled. After that they will be put olt. J in the meantime the outlook for an early settlement of the dispute involving 27,000 footplatemen is bleak. There were peace talks all yesterday but nothing came of them. L here w ill be further efforts today to find a formula whereby the men can be got back on the job.

The Trades Union Congress, which appealed unsuccessfully for the men to resume yesterday, plans its next move for Monday afternoon, when its general council will meet to hear union chiefs’ views.

But so far no further meeting between the big rail unions—the striking Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen and the nonstriking National Union of Railwaymen—and the Trades Union Congress, has been arranged. The prospects of settling Britain's other major dispute—the six-port dock strike—remained just as gloomy today. A spokesman for the 19,700 dockers on strike said yesterday that there seemed to be little hope of an early settlement.

More than two-thirds of the shipping in London, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Garston, Manchester, and Hull is affected by the stoppage. Liverpool in the meantime has yet another strike on its hands, threatening to hold up several trans-Atlantic liners. The crews are striking for better conditions.

The Minister of Labour (Sir Walter Monckton) today launched a new bid to settle the rail strike.

He called cn his team of skilled industrial conciliators to begin a new search for a peace plan to bring the L a “ . u , ni ° n chiefs and executives of the British Transport Commission back to the negotiating table, but there seemed little prospect that the rail stoppage or the dock strike could be settled this week.

Sir Walter Monckton’s new intervention followed an admission last night by leaders of the Trade Union Congress that they failed to find a peace formula in talks with the strike leaders.