Seamen Defy T.U.C.; ‘Can Win Strike Alone'

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31083, 11 June 1966, Page 17

Seamen Defy T.U.C.; ‘Can Win Strike Alone '

(N’.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 10. Britain’s seamen have defied pleas by the Trade Union Congress to end their 26-day strike, thus presenting the Prime Minister, Mr Wilson, with the prospect of calling out the Royal Navy to clear crowded ports.

Mr Wilson was reported to be withholding a decision to use the emergency powers to ease the impact of the strike on Britain’s economy until the T.U.C. had tried to pacify 7 the seamen.

The leaders of the striking National Union of Seamen on Thursday angrily rejected the peace proposals by the T.U.C., thus opening the way for emergency action by the Government. The T.U.C. tried to persuade the seamen to negotiate with ship owners on the

basis of a government court of inquiry’s interim report which proposed that the seamen’s 56-hour work week be reduced to 48 hours now and to 40 hours by next June. But the union leaders rejected the proposal and stuck to their original demand for an immediate 40-hour week on the same pay scale that they now receive for the 56hour week. Leaders of the T.U.C. were said to have told the seamen’s

union chiefs that if they rejected the government’s proposal they would receive no support from the Congress or its 169 affiliated unions. Tempers Short Tempers apparently flared during the closed meeting, and the N.U.S. 48-hour executive committee is said to have rejected the Congress’s offer so harshly that it is now believed that the seamen’s union may break away from the T.U.C. After the meeting, T.U.C. leaders and the Labour Minister, Mr Ray Gunter, met Mr [Wilson to discuss what the ; government’s next move would ' be. The T.U.C. general secretary, Mr George Woodcock, told reporters after the meeting that the situation was “deadlocked.”

Meanwhile, the N.U.S. chief, Mr William Hogarth, threatened to fight alone, he claimed that his 62,500-member union could last without outside help for “at least another eight weeks.” “My executive feels that we can win the strike on our own,” said the 56-year-old union leader. Reserve Powers The National Union of Seamen claimed on Thursday that 22,692 of its men and 791 ships have been made idle in British ports as a result of the strike the first merchant marine strike for 55 years.

Mr Wilson received emergency powers from Parliament last month to relieve port congestion and ease the economic strain on the nation. Such action would include mobilisation of the armed services and control of the docks, food and fuel supplies, and

the requisition of road transport and buildings. Mr Wilson has held these powers in reserve until now. But he warned in a statement on Thursday night that the government “will take any action necessary to safeguard essential supplies and services.”