Minister calls talks in bid to avert air strike

Press, 24 August 1977, Page 8

Minister calls talks in bid to avert air strike

'NZPA London I Urgent talks will be held in London today in a bid to stall a strike which threatens to close all Britain's airports next week-end. Air traffic control assistants, who voted yesterday to strike from tomorrow, until Monday in support of' a pay claim, will meet the Employment Secretary (Mr Albert Booth) at the House of Commons today. British airports, and particularly Heathrow in London, have been in chaos for more than a week now because of a go-slow by the assistants, who man a flightplan computer at West Drayton, near London. The airports could close completely next week-end. Mr Ken Thomas, the general secretary of the Civil and Public Servants Association, said yesterday: “The strike will bring the airports in this country to an absolute standstill.”

Millions of holidaymakers

will be affected. The strike coincides with the late summer bank holiday weekend.

I According to the “Evening i Standard” the full effects of the strike decision will now depend on the reaction of the i controllers, the men who actually control aircraft as they enter Britain's packed airlanes. Most of the controllers belong to the Institution of Professional Civil Servants. A spokesman said yesterday: “What we will try to avoid is accusations of strikebreaking. Following policy we will say, ‘Do your own jobs and don’t jeopardise safety, and don’t do work which is normally done by somebody else’.’’ A spokesman for Air New Zealand said it was too soon to say what effect the strike would have on the airline, but it was likely the DCIO which would normally go on from Los Angeles to London would be just turned around in Los Angeles.