Hangman’s Noose Not Intimidation

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31018, 25 March 1966, Page 13

Hangman’s Noose Not Intimidation

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, March 24. Trade union investigators reported yesterdav that one of seven car workers “fined by a so-called workers’ court himself clowned with an over-hanging rope to give the impression of a hangman’s noose.

It was this, a fact-finding team of the Amalgamated Engineering Union said, which led to grossly exaggerated reports of intimidation of men at a British Motor Corporation works at Cowley, Oxford, for refusing to come out on an unofficial strike. The “trial," at which the men who refused to strike were asked to pay £3 to charity instead, has become a big issue in the General Election campaign. The Opposition has said it will make unofficial strikes illegal and ban workers’ courts.

Another union, the Transport and General Workers’ union, which reported on the incident last week, also accused the press and politicians of exaggeration. But it warned its members against taking disciplinary action at factory level. Minister Advised The reports of both unions which had members involved in the incident have been passed to the Minister of Labour, Mr Ray Gunther, who will decide if further action is needed.

The engineering union report said the only evidence it found of what might be called intimidation was that the

“offending” workers were asked to be identified by appearing on the platform. It said there was a good deal of shouting and frivolous and jocular remarks made. ,

The rope in question had been hanging on a girder long before, and there was no evidence that it was used as intimidation.