HC Deb 03 July 1975 vol 894 cc1675-7

Mr. Hastings (by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will ask the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to intervene in the current dispute between the Sharman group of newspapers and the National Graphical Association.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Albert Booth)

The independent Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has been closely involved with this dispute for some time. It has held several meetings with the parties, both separately and together. It has not so far been able to assist them to a mutually acceptable solution but remains ready to do so. I understand, however, that a joint employer-union committee has now been set up at national level to attempt to find a solution to the dispute.

Mr. Hastings

Is the Minister aware that this union has instructed its membership throughout the United Kingdom not to handle the copy of any advertisers using the Sharman group of newspapers, and that since the NGA has a virtual monopoly of the typesetting function, this amounts to censorship of the announcements of any of these firms in the newspapers, even though they are not parties in any sense to the dispute in question? There are a number of them in my constituency. Does the Minister recognise that this latest form of trade union blackmail results directly from the Government's own Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974, by which they confer almost total indemnity in tort on strikers? How can he justify such action being within the law in what is still supposed to be a free society, and what precisely does he intend to do about it?

Mr. Booth

I have seen reports that the union has instructed its members, working for other papers, to block advertisements of companies continuing to advertise in papers produced by the company. Any obstacle in the way of dissemination of information is to be regretted. How- ever, I think that the bandying of words in this Chamber such as "blackmail" and "censorship", when what we are talking about is secondary action in pursuance of an industrial dispute, does not assist at a stage when ACAS is seeking, together with the union and the employers' society involved, to bring about a solution to this dispute.

Mr. Ward

My hon. Friend will be aware that some weeks ago members of the ACAS staff undertook negotiations with both the employers' and the employees' side of this dispute at my request. Indeed, if the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mr. Hastings) had contacted me, as the Member for the constituency containing Sharman and Co. Ltd., I should have been delighted to give him the information that I had concerning the dispute. However, may I ask the Minister whether there are any meetings actually in hand between the two parties in the Peterborough works, and when he expects to get a report of developments?

Mr. Booth

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Mr. Ward) for the action he took in contacting ACAS when the matter was first brought to his notice and for the attempt which he made with me on the matter. My understanding is that the meetings which are taking place are at the level of the Newspaper Society and the National Graphical Association. I understand that these are continuing.

Sir David Renton

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that, in spite of the sincere attempts of the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Ward), this dispute has escalated and worsened in recent weeks? Is he aware that it started as a dispute between a small family firm and a minority of its employees—the firm wishing to introduce modern machinery and the employees having been consulted and promised that there would be no redundancies—and that it has now become something with which the NGA has concerned itself at national level, and upon which it is extending its national influence? Will he ensure that the conciliators of his Department bring this matter to a conclusion before it escalates further and before we have a national strike upon our hands?

Mr. Booth

The members of the National Graphical Association may well be a minority of the total number of employees of the firm. Nevertheless, I think that those engaged in this operation are all members of the NGA. On my understanding of the situation, it is perfectly true to say that the NGA is exercising its influence well beyond the confines of this firm in attempting to prosecute its dispute. For that reason, I am anxious that the conciliators of the ACAS should do everything in their power to bring the dispute to a conclusion. Nevertheless, I think that the setting in which the discussions are now taking place is the best possible one. It recognises that there is a wider interest both on the part of the employers, through the Newspaper Society, and on the part of the employees in the firm, through the NGA.

Several Hon. Members rose—

Mr. Speaker

Mrs. Thatcher. Business Question.

Mr. Prior

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is it not customary, when a statement of this kind is made, for an Opposition Front Bench spokesman to have an opportunity to ask a supplementary question?

Mr. Speaker

The Chair is put in difficulty in allowing Private Notice Questions if, every time, it takes 15 minutes, because the result will be that the Chair will not allow them. I must occasionally be allowed to give a Private Notice Question about the same amount of time as an ordinary Question. That I have done today.