STRIKE PARTIES AT No. 10

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 15

STRIKE PARTIES AT No. 10

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —CopgrigM) LONDON, June 17. Mr Wilson has called the seamen’s strike leaders and the shipowners to meet him today in an urgent bid to settle Britain’s worsening shipping crisis.

The noon meeting at No. 10 Downing Street on the 33rd day of the strike could be crucial, but hopes of a quick settlement remain slim. Mr Wilson may see both sides separately -—the seamen’s executive and shipowners have not met since the collapse of pay and hours negotiations before the strike. More than 800 ships are idle in home ports and 25,000 seamen on strike. The stagnation of Britain’s merchant fleet and congestion in major ports grows more serious daily. Mr Wilson and the powerful Trades Union Congress, Britain’s central labour organisation, have failed in several meetings over the last 48 hours to budge the seamen’s leaders from their demand for an immediate cut in work-

ing hours from 56 to 40 a week. Mr Wilson says the country’s economy cannot afford to grant seamen what would be the equivalent of a 17 per cent pay rise. The Government announced yesterday a wide-ranging inquiry into Britain's shipping industry—a move aimed at influencing the seamen’s executive in favour of calling off their strike.

the strike could leave the two countries with more than 40,000 tons of good exports for Britain on their hands. Unshipped Exports Heads of the four agreed this figure would increase if the strike continued. The chairman of the Port Line and of the New Zealand tonnage committee, Mr Ronald Senior, told a press conference later that in New Zealand alone it was already estimated that more than 30,000 tons of refrigerated exports might be left unshipped in August unless ships were sent in ballast from overseas. Mr Senior said the cost of sending a ship in ballast to Australia or New Zealand was about £30,000, and this would have to be passed on. Australian and New Zealand immigration spokesmen said today the strike had stopped hundreds of immigrants from going to their new homes. Tourists Wait Almost 600 New Zealand migrants are still in England because of the strike. The strike has also affected the return plans of thousands of New Zealand and Australian tourists. While many ■ have been able to find alternative accommodation with air- ■ lines or European shipping , lines, at least 3000 are thought i to have adopted a “wait-and- ' see” attitude.

The 47-man union leadership meets this morning before going to Downing street. A gallup poll, published today in the “Daily Telegraph,” showed that the Labour Party’s popularity lead over the Conservative Party had dropped 5J per cent to 121 per cent since the strike began. Mounting Glut Farmers in Australia and New Zealand will face a mounting glut of unwanted produce if the strike continues, shipping heads warned in London today. The warning came as the effects of the strike tied up more ships in fast-fllling British docks, piled delayed exports into crowded warehouses and delayed thousands of migrants and other passengers waiting to sail from Australia and New Zealand. A meeting of the four shipping lines handling all food exports from Australia and New Zealand said today