Tories attack on strikes

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 8

Tories attack on strikes

NZPA-Reuter London The British Government [faces a tough challenge in [ Parliament today as a i nation-wide shutdown of rail [services adds to the disruption caused by a strike [of 100,000 lorry drivers. The Opposition Conservative leader, Margaret ; Thatcher, will lead an attack • on the pay policies of the • Prime Minister (Mr James. Callaghan) and his handling; ,|of the strikes which have' [forced industry to lay off! (175.000 workers. 1 The minority Labour Gov-[ : ernment is, however, ex-1 pected to survive the debate! with the help of the small! Scottish and Welsh national-' ist parties. As the truck drivers’ strike entered its fifth day,! there was confusion overj whether strikers were abid-i ing by their union’s decision to limit secondary picketing! of firms not involved in the dispute. Many ports were crippled by lack of transport .and industrialists have said that factories starved of raw [materials could lay off a ■ million more wmrkers by the! [end of the week. | While the Government! (wants to limit wage rises to I [5 per cent cent, lorry! I drivers are asking for a 221 (per cent increase and have! [turned down a 15 per cent| [offer. [ The Transport and General (Workers’ Union said on Monday night that many ' companies were giving in ' and granting the rise, a 1 claim strongly denied by the ' employers’ Road Haulage 1 Association. Railwaymen went on * strike at midnight on Mon- 1 day night over a pay. claim ' with the threat of another 1 stoppage tomorrow. Dis- ! ruption of services is ex- - pected to extend well into ' Wednesday, and the Secretary for Transport (Mr William Rodgers) has appealed' to the public to try to walk I or cycle to work and to[ motorists to give free lifts. 1 1 The mounting anti-union I ‘ public feeling in an election!! year was a clear cause ofi* concern for the Labour!’ Party. Mrs Thatcher hasp talked of curbing union!’ powers if she w'on the Gen-[' eral Election that Mr Cal-[J laghan must call by October. |f One staunchly con-p servative newspaper, the!-“Daily-Telegraph,” said the 5 nation faced a crisis as [I serious as the outbreak of 1 World War Two in 1939. “Then the danger came from! outside,” it said in an editorial. “Todav it comes from!.

within and without. For what is at issue is not an industrial dispute but a threat to our whole way of life, part of a process of pie-! cemeal destruction of our! free institutions and their! [replacement by a second-! [hand version of East Euro-| pean society,” the paper added.