HC Deb 16 January 1984 vol 52 cc21-2 3.32 pm
Mr. Allan Roberts (Bootle)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the industrial dispute at Scotts bakery in Bootle which is preventing bread from being supplied to the Merseyside area and could cause the permanent loss of 700 jobs, with the closure of the factory. The matter is specific as the workers are on strike at the moment and have had injunctions served upon them by the management preventing them from entering the factory. Once again industrial relations are soured by the use of the courts.

The matter is also urgent and of national importance for a number of other reasons. First, it is urgent because at the moment there seems little hope of the dispute being settled, as the management is refusing to meet the unions to discuss their grievance. The management actually stated that it did not care how long the strike lasted, as it could well close the Merseyside factory, employing 700 people, and move the production elsewhere. Its contempt for its Merseyside work force is a disgrace.

Secondly, the matter is urgent because the dispute is about to escalate into a national stoppage. The workers at all the other 12 bakeries owned by Allied Bakeries throughout the country are being balloted this week, having been asked by the union to take supportive action.

The matter is also urgent because the dispute is typical of the new atmosphere in industrial relations which has been created in the country by the Government's industrial policy and laws. The management imposed on the work force, unilaterally and without discussion, new working procedures making 17 people redundant and requiring the remainder of the workers to work at least a 66½-hour week and do 12-hour shifts. The same attack on the working conditions of the work force at all the other bakeries owned by Allied Bakeries is planned.

We now have industrial relations without any relations. Managements seem to believe that, with the backing of the courts and Ministers, they can impose cuts in the living standards of their employees as and how they wish. It is important that the House should debate this dispute before it escalates into a national stoppage. Already the people of Merseyside recognise—even though they are unable to buy bread from their supermarkets—that to impose an average 66½-hour week on a work force without consultation is more than unreasonable. It is important that the House should debate this urgent matter and require the intervention of Ministers, or at least of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, in order to settle the dispute and restore good practice in industrial relations in this country before it is too late. The ordinary people of Merseyside are looking to the House for a lead.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member for Bootle (Mr. Roberts) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 10 for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he thinks should have urgent consideration, namely, the industrial dispute at Scotts Bakery in Bootle which is preventing bread from being supplied to the Merseyside area and could cause the permanent loss of 700 jobs, with the closure of the factory. I listened carefully to the hon. Gentleman, but I regret that I do not consider that the matter that he has raised is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 10, and I cannot, therefore, submit his application to the House.