Court Of Inquiry

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32354, 21 July 1970, Page 15

Court Of Inquiry

Port employers and dockers officials worked throughout the week-end to prepare their evidence for the court of inquiry, which will probably begin its hearings tomorrow. The court’s findings, which, it is thought, could be published in about a week, could provide the basis for bringing the two sides together again after last week-end's cliff - hanging negotiations, which subsided dramatically into the strike decision. The dockers, already among Britain’s highest-paid workers, are on strike for substantial pay increases. They want to boost their industry’s basic time rate from £ll Is 8d a week to £2O.

The basic time rate is not a minimum wage—that is

fixed at £l6 a week. It is a calculator used to work out piece-work prices, overtime, holiday and other payments. . To raise it would add up to £l9 a week to the men's present average earnings of £35 or £36 a week, and the employers say they cannot meet this demand. The strikers go into the inquiry encouraged by expressions of support and solidarity from dockers in Holland and Germany, but the only press support in London has come from the Communist "Morning Star." Editorials in other newspapers have counselled both the Government and the unions to tread very warily in an explosive -situation, and have warned the housewife to watch out for "sharks and spivs, crawling out of their

holes again to make a killing out of higher prices in a national emergency." The Opposition Labour Party does not intend to oppose the Government in the House of Commons today over the emergency powers, but heated debate is expected on the issue of the use of troops.