STRIKE CONTINUES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27266, 17 December 1949, Page 7

STRIKE CONTINUES

THREE LONDON POWER STATIONS TERMS NOT ACCEPTED NZPA—Copyright Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 15. A delegate meeting tonight voted for the continuation of the L onc *on power strike until the withdrawal of the official notice concerning the unconditional return to work at three power stations—Brimsdown, Taylor’s Lane, and Littlebrook. The chairman of the meeting explained that the men had returned to work at the Barking station, where they would remain “provided nothing unforeseen happened.”

An earlier message said that Cabinet Ministers, the chiefs ■of Britain’s nationalised electricity industry, trade union leaders, and unofficial strikers were caught up in a wrangle over terms on which the strike at the four key power stations was due to end today.

The 2700 men who stopped work at the beginning of the week, bringing widespread black-outs to parts of Southern England, voted today to resume work pending further negotiations on their claim for a special “ heat and dirt” bonus.

At Barking—the biggest power station in Europe—the strikers went back, but at the three other stations they refused to sign a declaration that they were returning to work “unconditionally.” Troops drafted into these power stations, therefore, remained, and the workers asserted that the strike had become a lockout. The Labour Minister, Mr G. Isaacs, told the House Of Commons that he was to meet the parties in the dispute tonight and he hoped to make a statement later. He added: “Yesterday I said there was dynamite lying about. It is piling up now.” Soon after making this statement Mr Isaacs, the Home Secretary, Mr Chuter Ede, and the Fuel Minister, Mr H. T. N. Gaitskell, met Lord Citrine, chairman of the British Electricity Authority. Mass meetings of some of the strikers were called for tonight, and the men who resumed work at Barking have called a mass meeting for tomorrow to decide future action.