British Labour Front Brighter

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32073, 22 August 1969, Page 11

British Labour Front Brighter

(N.Z. P.A. -Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, August 21. Britain’s labour-management relations looked decidedly more cheerful tonight after three industries had settled their strikes and two more were moving towards a settlement.

Most important to the nation's economy is the strike, now in its ninth week, of blast furnacemen which has closed down the State-owned Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, the largest in Britain.

Production of steel worth about £6m has been lost, forcing some steel users to buy overseas.

An independent committee pf inquiry last night announced its support for the men’s demand for a wage increase—the basic cause of the strike—but blamed the employers and the unions for not preventing the shut-down. The committee’s report has increased hopes that the organisers of the unofficial strike will tell the 1300 strikers at a mass rally today to go back to work.

Talks are also being held today to work out a new pay and productivity agreement for the London dockers at container-ship berths, who for several months have imposed

a virtual ban on handling container ships, with the result that some of these new vessels have been diverted to European ports. Now the employers have evolved a package deal, linking increased productivity with more pay. The 3500 dockers at Liverpool, Britain’s second-largest port, have decided to end their strike which has immobilised work on more than 30 ships; they returned to work this morning. Theirs was not a pay dispute, but an inter-union disagreement. Production was also resumed today at a car-body factory in Coventry, which had been closed for three days because transport workers stopped making deliveries. And a threat to London’s beer supplies was removed when 100 lorry-drivers who deliver beer to 800 public houses called off their threeday strike; but they will still work to rule.