HC Deb 25 March 1957 vol 567 cc805-6
Mr. Robens

(by Private Notice) asked the Minister of Labour whether he will make a statement about the disputes in the shipbuilding and engineering industries.

The Minister of Labour and National Service (Mr. Iain Macleod)

As a result of the continued discussions to which I referred in my statement on Friday, the representatives of the shipbuilding Employers' Federation and the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions reached agreement on a basis for resuming negotiations today on the Confederation's wages claim. This agreement is in precise terms and, although I cannot give details, it will be included in any final settlement which may be reached.

I have just come from a meeting with representatives of the Engineering Employers' Federation and I hope to be able to arrange discussions between the Federation and the unions very soon. Hon. Members will, of course, understand that the union representatives concerned with the engineering dispute are the same as those who are involved in today's negotiations with the shipbuilding employers.

Mr. Robens

The whole House will welcome the statement made by the right hon. Gentleman, which gives cause to hope that perhaps today will see the end of the shipbuilding dispute. The statement indicates that the unions' representatives are identical in both the shipbuilding and the engineering disputes, and that the engineering dispute negotiations cannot take place until the shipbuilding dispute negotiations are over. Is it the right hon. Gentleman's impression that, provided there is a settlement in the shipbuilding dispute, a settlement of the engineering dispute might follow a very similar course, and be rather more speedy?

Mr. Macleod

The difficulty, as the right hon. Gentleman has pointed out, is not one of will, but purely a physical one, in that, as the same six union leaders are concerned, they canont be in two places at once; but it is possible to do a great deal of preparatory work, which is what I have been doing with the employers earlier this afternoon. I do not think that we can be quite certain that precisely the same pattern will follow, although that has been usual in recent years. But the two are very closely linked—a settlement of one is bound to affect the other—and I would certainly hope that if one could be concluded speedily we could equally speedily conclude the other.

Mr. Robens

Have the engineering employers agreed to meet the unions round the table to negotiate the wage claim, or is that a matter still to be settled?

Mr. Macleod

I think that the engineering employers will be submitting to me later this evening the basis of an agreement similar to the one to which I have already referred. I hope if things go well, almost in perhaps a matter of hours, to get the two sides together at No. 8. St. James's Square.

Mr. Gresham Cooke

While welcoming my right hon. Friend's statement, may I ask whether he is aware that there is a certain amount of concern about the railway settlement——

Mr. Speaker

Order. That Question is not about the railway settlement.