British Govt retreats again in face of strike

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 6

British Govt retreats again in face of strike

NZPA-Reuter London Britain’s Conservative Government which last week retreated before the threat cf a national strike by coal miners, yesterday took action to avert a similar stoppage by 32,000 wa H r and sewerage workers. After talks with the National Water Council, which controls the State-owned industry, union leaders said they would recommend acceptance of a 12.3 per cent wage increase offeree them yesterday. In regional ballots, the water workers had overwhelmingly rejected a 10 per cent increase which the council had previously said was its final offer. Leaders of the four unions involved had met earlier in the.Jdav ■ to discuss their plans for a national strike Which cou'd , have caused pollution of water supplies land crippled industry. 1 i Workers-in the north-west

and north-east of England had already come out on unofficial strike, disrupting water supplies and sewage treatment locally. But the threat of a national strike has almost certainly been averted by yesterday’s decision. In the event of a watei strike, plans had been made to call in troops and ration water supplies, but there was no guarantee that suchmeasures would have beer effective for more than a few days. There were widespread fears over the threat to public health caused by breakdowns at ■- sewage plants. The increased offer to the water workers followed the Government’s agreement last week to allow more funds tc the National Coal Bdarc averting its plan to close 23 uneconomic pits in the face of a threatened national miners’ strike. And in another reversal oi policy the Industry Seer**

tary (Sir Keith Joseph) has announced a 5.4 billion sterling ($13,300 million) rescue package for the ailing Stateowned British Steel Corporation. This marks another reversal of the Conservative Government’s monetarist policy of cutting public spending and making State-owned industries operate without Government funding. Sir Keith, however/ also published a new bill which will enable the Governmenl to sell off profitable parts of the corporation or. wind up unprofitable ones. He told ;. Parliament that the Government would write off about $B6OO of B.S.C.’s debts,< and provide for a further $2470 million to be written off. i He said that the B.S.C would also be allowed to increase . its borrowing from the Government this year and next year, and woulc not be expected to break even until 1982-83,