§ 10. Mr. WilshireTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many working days have been lost to strikes during the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HowardOne and a half million working days were lost as a result of strikes in the 12 months ended January 1991. This is less than an eighth of the annual average in the 1970s, and is the lowest 12-month total since 1953. The number of stoppages recorded in January is the lowest for this month since 1929.
§ Mr. WilshireIs not this enormously welcome decrease in the number of strikes largely due to the powers of the courts to sequester the assets of trade unions that break the law? Would not abandoning these powers lead to a massive increase in the number of strikes? Will my right hon. and learned Friend condemn the Labour party's proposals to give these powers back to unions and to undermine the courts?
§ Mr. Howard1 agree with my hon. Friend. I hope that someone will rise from the Labour Front Bench and congratulate the Government on the success of our measures to reduce the number of strikes—something which has benefited our country. My hon. Friend is also right to point to the disastrous consequences that would flow from the Labour party's strikers' charter.
§ Mr. Tony BanksInstead of being unbelievably smug about what the Government have done, the Secretary of State should be more concerned about factories that are closing completely, because that is causing far more distress in industry and among workers. When Question Time is over, will the Secretary of State find time to go downstairs and talk to the representatives of the 2,000 756 British Aerospace workers from Kingston—members of the work force in the constituency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer—who are about to lose their jobs?
§ Mr. HowardI cannot believe that even the hon. Gentleman thinks that an increase in the number of strikes will help to save jobs. He might be better employed having a word with his Front-Bench defence spokesman, whose £9 billion worth of defence cuts would make the difficulties now faced by the defence industry seem as nothing.