§ 17. Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will list the monthly and cumulative figures for the number of strikes and days lost through strikes in the motor vehicles, motor cycles, three-wheel vehicle and pedal cycle manufacturing industries for the years 1964, 1968 and 1969 up to the end of January.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerMy answers to the hon. Member on 5th November, 4th December and 29th January provided figures for 1964 and 1968, and provisional figures for 1969 up to and including November. On the same basis the figures for December, 1969, are 13 stoppages and 137,000 working days lost, and for the year 1969, 274 stoppages, and 1,635,000 days lost.
As from 1st January, 1970, these statistics are being compiled on a revised basis which separates motor vehicle manufacturing. By this definition the provisional figures for January, 1970, are 38 stoppages and 76,000 working days lost.
§ Mr. PageThe House is grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the new procedure of showing the figures with motor vehicles separated from the rest. Is he aware that the figures are absolutely horrific, and that when Lord Stokes speaks of the Government's indifferent attitude towards 1379 strikes he speaks for the majority of people?
§ Mr. WalkerThe efforts we have made in the past 12 months have shown that the Government are anything but indifferent. I have said repeatedly from this Dispatch Box in recent months that we share the genuine and widespread concern, but I do not think that the position is helped by right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite seeking to make political capital from the situation. The noble Lord, Lord Stokes, should recall that it takes two to make a fight and that the Royal Commission reminded us that management had a prime responsibility for resolving the problems in industrial relations.
§ Mr. OrmeDoes my hon. Friend accept that Lord Stokes's remarks yesterday were most unfortunate, coming the day before he was meeting the trade union representatives to discuss the issue? Will he consider the statement of the President of the A.E.F. last night that one of the basic problems in the car industry is the antiquated negotiating machinery, and will he press to see that negotiations take place on this?
§ Mr. WalkerWe have made a focal point in cur approach to the defects of industrial relations the need for the reform of procedure within an industry, and we have repeatedly said that the procedure within the engineering industry, of which the motor industry is a very large part, is probably the most outstanding example of a bad procedure.
As to the timing of Lord Stokes's remarks, all of us recognise that when industrial relations reach a particularly critical point solutions are not helped by inflammatory remarks of the kind made yesterday.