HOPES RISE ON SEA STRIKE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31096, 27 June 1966, Page 13

HOPES RISE ON SEA STRIKE

Deadlock Believed Broken <N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, June 26. Hopes have risen that the deadlock in the 42-day-maritime strike has finally been broken after the National Union of Seamen’s vote to accept a new shipowners’ proposal “as a basis of negotiations,” United Press International reported. Ihe union’s 48-member executive committee yesterday overrode militant opposition within its ranks to approve a ship owners’ offer to extend their annual leave bv nine days to 48 days a year.

The action seemed to indicate for the first time that the union was willing to get down to serious bargaining in an effort to end the dispute which has already idled a third of the world’s largest merchant marine.

The shipowners' offer had been recommended by a Government-appointed court of inquiry. The union's action, however, meant that no strike settlement was likely to be reached until some time next week. The union executive committee held another meeting later to discuss other Issues. The Ministry of Labour an-

nounced that the Shipowners’ and Seamens’ Union would meet next Tuesday. The strike has so far involved nearly 25,000 of the union’s 62,500 seamen—the rest are still at sea and not

affected by the strike orders until they reach Britain—and tied up some 900 ships. The employers offered to concede an extra nine days’ annual holiday time, bringing the total to 48 days, and adhere to a Governmentappointed court of inquiry’s proposal of a staggered reduction of the seamen’s working week from 56 to 40 hours over the next 12 months. In return, the seamen agreed to let the owners rearrange work schedules at sea to cut down the amount of routine overtime working.