British Seamen May Walk Off

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 15

British Seamen May Walk Off

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) LONDON, January 24. A decision whether to make the strike of British merchant seamen a full-scale national stoppage or to apply it only to selected ships like the Queen Elizabeth from midnight on February 16 is being made today by the executive of the National Union of Seamen. The executive decided yesterday to inform the shipowners and the Ministry of Labour that a dispute existed in the industry.

The union said it intended to advise its 74,000 members not to sign articles of agreement on and after February 17. This would mean that from that date seamen would withhold their labour. Against Advice

The executive decision was made against the advice of the union negotiators, who recommended that they should accept a shipowners' offer on their application for increased pay, shorter hours and extended leave. The owners had proposed: an extra £2 a month on the present pay of £39 10s a month, with 10s more for men with four years’ service and over, longer leave, one hour off the present 44-hour week in

January, 1965, and another hour the following year, as well as other fringe benefits. A strike would mean the first major stoppage in British shipping in the union’s 76 years, according to today’s “Guardian.” The newspaper quoted the chairman of the Shipping Federation (Mr W Denholm) on the union decision—“a disaster which we haven’t faced in the industry in my time, and I don’t think in anyone else’s time alive.” Not A Strike A technicality prevents the union stoppage being called a strike. Under maritime law strikes are illegal. Seamen cannot “down compasses.” They must wait until their articles expire. In practice this means that most seamen can leave their ships as soon as they reach a port in Britain. The crisis will be studied today by the Minister of Labour, the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party.