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passage of the Dock Work Bill:
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1,900 of these had accepted
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redundancy and another 2,000 or so were now working normally. 26 ex-Scheme ports were fully open, and 7 partially open. remained closed by strike action: these included some of the larger ports such as Tilbury, Liverpool and Southampton. However, dockers at Grimsby and Immingham had returned to work the previous day, and there was a steady flow back in other There had been very little picketing at the ports. The ck Workers Delegate Conference of the Transport and General kers Union was meeting later that day and the outcome mained to be seen. Nevertheless so far the industrial action e ports had been far less sustained and had had less sexone consequences than had originally seemed likely.
There were also signs of diminishing support for the industrial action by members of the National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO). In London, for example, support for the str had reduced progressively from 40 per cent in the first week to 5 per cent in the second and 30 per cent in the third. The gal ballot of NALGO members had provided for 6 days of strike tion which would be completed that week: any further action buld therefore require a fresh ballot. Meanwhile the fovernment employers were standing firm on their 7 per cent fer.
The coming weeks wouse industrial action or threats of it in a number of difficulars such as the ambulance service and private sector engineer workers.
rkers. It was very important that over that period everytinssible was done to keep down the level of pay offers and sements.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT said that earlier that week the National Union of Railwaymen UR) had decided to reject an offer by British Rail (BR) of
per cent pay increase as recommended by the Railway Staff tional Tribunal (RSNT), and had called a further one-day st the following Wednesday. The Union argued that the offer didt deal adequately with the problem of low pay in the railway industry, but the offer had been accepted by the Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen and the Transport Salaried Star Association and the decision of the NUR to reject it and 11 a further one- day strike had alienated public opinion.
ad emphasised that its offer was a final one and that it wo! on pay negotiating machinery until after the ended. BR would now be mounting a vigorous campai individual staff that its offer was fair in ord
enter talks action had persuade try to
encourage a return to work. Over the last week, it had managed to improve the presentation of its case through the it would be seeking to capitalise on this.
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