The Press FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1970. Britain’s Idle Ports

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1970. Britain’s Idle Ports

Britain’s new Conservative Government is facing its first real test in the dock workers’ strike over pay claims. Britain lives by external trade; more than 90 per cent of it passes through the ports. The strike could cost the country as much as £37 million a day in delayed exports. The country’s trading partners, not least of them New Zealand, also face substantial losses. The Apple and Pear Board has estimated that it could lose $1 million -if the strike continued into August; other New Zealand exports might be even more seriously affected; and a wide range of New Zealand imports will be delayed. Mindful of the damage done by the 1966 seamen’s strike in Britain, Mr Heath and his colleagues have every incentive to get the dispute settled quickly, especially as Britain’s balance of payments in June showed the worst trade deficit for more than a year.

The dockers, who have had pay increases of almost 50 per cent in the last four years, are demanding that their basic weekly wage be raised from £ll to £2O. In reply, the employers have offered a guaranteed minimum wage of £2O. These figures bear little relation to the dockers’ real wages, which at present average £35 a week. The dockers’ demand would bring them a substantial increase in the rates at which penalty payments and overtime are calculated. The cost to employers would be about £4O million a year. The employers’ offer would not affect penalty payments. Any settlement reached will be a short-term solution. Britain’s docks are being mechanised; and a change to salaried employment is being worked out Virtually a new generation of dockers will be recruited to work the new system. Most of the present dockers are older men who will soon retire, for there has been almost no recruitment of dock labour for some years.

Commentators in Britain are recalling the last national dock stoppage during the general strike in 1926; and inevitably the suggestion has been made that the Armed Forces should again be used to keep the ports open. Mr Heath and his Government would no doubt be reluctant to take this step. The employment of soldiers would certainly exacerbate feelings and increase the risk of widening the strike should the dockers seek the support of other unions. In any case the Army, 12,000 of whom are keeping the peace in Northern Ireland, can have few men to spare. The Government is clearly in a dilemma. If it encourages the port employers to make even limited concessions it will do so in the knowledge that this will add to the pressure for widespread increases in wages in Britain —a pressure that constitutes one of the most serious threats to the continuance of economic recovery. It is an anxious question whether any prolonged holdup in the ports is not an even more serious threat.