HC Deb 26 February 1970 vol 796 cc1385-6
24. Mr. Fry

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity how many stoppages due to industrial disputes took place in British industry, excluding mining and quarrying, for the last six-month period for which figures are available.

Mr. Harold Walker

Excluding mining and quarrying, the provisional total of stoppages of work due to industrial disputes in the United Kingdom which began in the six-month period August, 1969, to January, 1970, is 1,507.

Mr. Fry

Would the hon. Gentleman agree that these figures re-emphasise the need for the reform of industrial relations? Is he not regretful that his colleague, the First Secretary, was apparently unable to carry the rest of her party last year in her earlier determination to introduce some such reform?

Mr. Walker

I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Gentleman when he talks of the need to reform industrial relations. This is why this Government are doing something about it, while hon. Gentlemen opposite did nothing during the 13 years that they were in Government. My right hon. Friend has made plain that she is bringing forward her Industrial Relations Bill as quickly as possible.

Mr. Maclennan

Would my hon. Friend agree that, while these figures give no grounds for satisfaction, they bear favourable comparison with the comparable figures in the United States where the kind of system that hon. Gentlemen opposite propose is being worked?

Mr. Walker

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I have often said that, disturbing as they are, the figures for the number of strikes and the days lost in this country bear favourable comparison with those of most other advanced industrial countries. This does not provide grounds for complacency. My hon. Friend is right to point to the comparison with the United States and the fact that it operates the legislative provisions that hon. Gentlemen opposite want to introduce.

Mr. R. Carr

Why then, can the hon. Gentleman tell us, did the Government in their White Paper, paragraph 15 I think, go out of their way to stress the particularly damaging nature of the large number of strikes, which is typical of Britain?

Mr. Walker

There is no disagreement about the damaging effects of the number of strikes. Where we profoundly and fundamentally disagree is in the solution. We do not believe that the Taft-Hartley solution proposed by hon. Gentlemen opposite is any answer.

Mr. Fernyhough

Will my hon. Friend remind right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite that, despite the deplorable strike record of the motor car industry, in 1969 the speculators in the City of London cost the country more on one Friday than all the strikes in the motor car industry during that year?

Mr. Walker

I have no remit to answer questions about the Stock Exchange. The other interesting aspect of my hon. Friend's supplementary question is that, in spite of the number of disputes and days lost, we achieved record exports in the car industry.