Concern over racial strike in Britain

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33092, 6 December 1972, Page 19

Concern over racial strike in Britain

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LOUGHBOROUGH, December 5. More than 200 Asian mill-workers stormed into their union headquarters in Loughborough, a Midlands industrial town, yesterday, and occupied it for several hours, to provide a climax to Britain’s first large racial strike.

The wild-cat stoppage, which 500 Asians began at a knitwear factory six weeks ago over pay demands and charges of racial discrimination, has given rise to fears that it could be the opening shot of a large-scale industrial revolution by the country’s non-white labour force of 750,000 for a better deal. All the striking men’s grievances arise from what they allege is discrimination by their union and the mill management. Observers say that the strike has shattered “the complacency of British trade unions and management about race relations.” The 200 angry Asians, mostly Indians, burst into the local offices of the National Union of Hosiery and Knitwear Workers yesterday to bang tables, chant slogans, and demand that the union make the strike official. Union leaders told them that this was impossible. T.U.C. intervention The seriousness of the stoppage was underlined when Mr Victor Feather, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, the “high command” of Britain’s organised labour, arranged "peace” talks for today. The strikers allege that the union connived with the mill management to break the strike by agreeing to recruit white workers to take the strikers’ jobs, and by not giving the Asians a voice in the union. Official ruling The Race Relations Board, which has long pressed for wider powers to investigate suspected discrimination, has ruled that the union and the mill management violated the Race Relations Act, which outlaws discrimination on grounds of colour. The board, a Government body, said today that it was investigating another union in the Midlands because of alleged discrimination in banning non-whites from its ranks.

The strikers’ action yesterday coincided with a report by the Runnymede Trust, an independent organisation, which said that there was widespread discrimination against non-whites in the hosiery industry in the Midlands. Its report gave a warning that more strikes

would break out unless industrial relations in the country’s 346 hosiery factories were radically overhauled. Govt warning It emphasised that although 20 per cent of the industry’s labour force of 125,000 was non-white, almost all the “cream” jobs were held by whites. It noted, too, that there was a wide gap between the pay rates for whites and coloured immigrants—in some cases, as much as 300 per cent. ‘Fight for dignity’ Mr Jayanti Naik, the strike leader, said defiantly today: “We will not go back to work like dogs. This is a fight for dignity.” A Government report last month gave a warning that not enough was being done in industry to promote nonwhites to supervisory and executive posts, and it urged managements to do more. Industrial experts note that both unions and management have swept the racial problem under the carpet over the last few years, in spite of signs that coloured immigrants were no longer content to accept low-paid jobs—such as bus drivers, lorry drivers, railway porters, sewage workers, and unskilled textile workers—which whites no longer wanted. Immigrants, the experts say, tend to be passive in labour relations, because they need jobs, and cannot afford to press too hard demands for more money and better conditions in Britain’s white-dominated industry. The “Observer” comments: “Loughborough may be the Sworn in Mr Gough Whitlam was sworn in today as Australia’s first Labour Prime Minister for 23 years, and Mr Lance Barnard, the deputy leader of the Australian Labour Party, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. — Canberra, Dec. 5.

turning point in the immigrants’ struggle to extend the areas of equal opportunity. If industry cannot adjust to their aspiration, the record of fragile harmony on the factory floor will end abruptly.”