SEAMEN END STRIKE; DOCKERS DIVIDED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27695, 27 June 1955, Page 11

SEAMEN END STRIKE; DOCKERS DIVIDED

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, June 25. The unofficial strike of seamen at Southampton and Liverpool, which has dislocated the sailings of trans-Atlantic liners in the last 26 days, finally collapsed today.

But the five-week-old unofficial strike of dockers is still not settled in provincial ports, though London dockers have voted to resume on Monday.

Shipping companies today hurriedly made plans for the sailings of a number of trans-Atlantic liners held up because of the strike.

The strikers, many of them ships catering staff, were pressing for improved wages and working conditions. At Southampton, 50 strikers held an informal meeting. Afterwards, a temporary leader of the strike committee said that after the Liverpool strikers’ decision to resume,’ his committee was recommending the Southampton men to return to work. The decision to go back at Liverpool was conditional on the strike committee being reinstated in the merchant navy pool. Men under the age of 26 who have not yet served their term of conscription in the forces, automatically lose their exemption from call-up if they are considered to have left the sea. Among, the ships delayed or held up in port during the stoppage were the Cunarders Queen Mary (81,0(10 tons), Mauretania (35,674 tons), Saxonia (22.000 tons), Ascania (14,400 tons), and the Canadian Pacific Line’s Empress of France (20,448 tons) Britannic (27,666 tons) and Empress of Australia (19,379 tons). About 300 strikers at Southampton reported back for work yesterday, and last night the Saxonia, an early casualty of the strike, sailed from Liverpool for Quebec with 930 passengers aboard. Dockers Reject Call About 1600 dockers on strike at Hull today rejected the back-to-work call of their union leaders and decided to stay out in support of their claim for recognition. This decision was taken at one oi three meetings to which a delegation of National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dorkers’ Union leaders were travelling this week-end to put the case for a resumption of work in the provincial ports. The delegation left Hull to address meetings at Liverpool later tonight and at Manchester tomorrow and they will report on the result of their efforts to a mass meeting of London members of the union on Monday. In London’s dockland there has already been a decision to return to work on Monday, but strikers in the other affected ports have been told repeatedly by local leaders that

the London men would not go back if the provincial dockers wanted to stay on strike. National Dock Labour Board figures issued today showed that there were 32.737 men working or available for work in the affected ports, with 18,822 men in the dispute. About 165 ships were idle and 112 undermanned.