Union leader appeals for steel-strike end

Press, 2 April 1980, Page 8

Union leader appeals for steel-strike end

NZPA-Reuter London The British steelworkers’ leader, Mr Bill Sirs, yesterday called for an end to' Britain’s 13-week national steel strike, after an independent inquiry recommended that his members receive 15.5 per cent pay increases. ’ Mr Sirs, of the Iron and Steel Trades’ Confederation, said he would urge negotiators to accept the figure when they make a decision today. It was recommended by a three-man committee of inquiry headed by a former Cabinet Minister, Lord Lever, after two days of'

public hearings into a pay dispute that has closed all British steel mills with the exception of a few privatelyowned plants. The rise is above the 14.4 per cent pay offer of the State-owned British Steel Corporation, but well below' the union’s 19.7 per cent claim. Mr Sirs told reporters that with pension and sickness provisions it represented an increase of about 17 per cent. The strike began when the 8.5. C., which is losing more than a $2.3 million a day, offered only two per cent increases’. i

I “Having moved from two per cent to 17 per cent, our I members can see some success,” Mr Sirs said. The pay rise recommended by the committee of inquiry was slammed by union militants as a “shabby compromise.” Strike leaders doubted whether it would be enough to get their men back to work. I The reaction came in the wake of news that the British Steel Corporation chairman (Sir Charles Villiers) is to get $16,100 pay rise. I