Dundee Corporation Busmen (Strike)

HC Deb 21 October 1968 vol 770 cc867-9

15. Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will make a statement on the recent strike of Dundee Corporation busmen.

Mr. Harold Walker

The strike started on 13th August, 1968, the day on which the Government referred a local pay agreement to the National Board for Prices and Incomes and imposed a standstill on its implementation. Work was resumed on 5th September. I greatly regret the inconvenience which was caused to the citizens of Dundee. The Board has now reported adversely on the agreement. The Report also shows that there is ample scope in Dundee for a real improvement in productivity and suggests ways of achieving this. The Manpower and Productivity Service of my Department is ready to help the Corporation and the Union in the application of the Board's recommendations.

Mr. Bruce-Gardyne

I am sure that that Answer will be very encouraging to the people of Dundee, who have been so gravely inconvenienced. Is it not a fact that the Prices and Incomes Board, in its wisdom, said that the main clue to increased productivity in Dundee was the spread of single-man buses, and that the sole consequence of the strike has been the removal of those single-man buses which were in operation before the strike? Furthermore, is it not clear from a comparison of the way in which the right hon. Lady provoked this strike, the way in which she has treated the engineers last week, that the only criterion of a prices and incomes policy now is the ability of the union to blackmail the Government?

Mr. Speaker

Order. Questions must be reasonably brief.

Mr. Walker

What the hon. Gentleman says is misleading, because there were three recommendations in the Board's Report. The operation of one-man buses was but one of them. Whether one-man buses have been withdrawn at present is open to question. Negotiations are taking place. The settlement referred to the Board had to be seen against the background of the national negotiations in which my right hon. Friend was then participating. As to the convenience or otherwise of the citizens of Dundee, I would remind the hon. Gentleman that such an increase in wages as was proposed in the original agreement would require, in order to clear the deficit of the Transport Committee, a rise in fares of 7 per cent. or 8 per cent., and I am sure that that, too, would inconvenience the citizens of Dundee.

Mr. Speaker

Order. Answers must be reasonably brief, too.