'Casuals' threat now in state docks

supplementary dockers would be a growing and permanent feature of government-run ports.

He said: 'I don't know how you run a port without supplementaries. You can't live with a rigid system of employment because of the violent fluctuations in this industry. Supplementaries are necessary' Of the Board's total dock labour force of 4,750, more than 1,000 are on the supplementary register, from which men can be fired at a week's notice. And the Board wants to increase this number by hundreds at Hull.

Delivering the Board's annual report, Browne said there were Pickets attitudes harden SHOP STEWARDS at Chrysler's Stoke engine plant, at Coventry, predicted yesterday that all 3,500 workers there would be laid off following a 'most impressive' picket by strikers from the nearby Ryton plant.

lhe kyton pickets fighting arbitrary layoffs by the company, claimed 100 per cent success in turning away orries trying to enter the plan nd stopping finished com. ponents leaving.

This, they said took them nearer their aim of forcing Chrysler either Soft the l entire Stoke 320011 force and the 8,000 at Linwood, near Glasgow, too.

Pickets again accused the US. owned company of provoking the Ryton strike as part of a general crackdown, orchestrated by the Tory government, by employers all over the country.

But they warned that the 4,500 strikers were not going to lie down under this attack. Their Sir Humphrey Browne. 800 supplementaries at Southampton docks. Applications had either been granted or were being approved for supplementary labour at Swansea, Barry, Cardiff, Fleetwood, Garston, and Immingham.

When questioned about dangerous tendencies towards casalization, Browne said curtly: "Casuals" is an inappropriate word. It is wholly erroneous to think that they are employed on the nod on the day.? ABOUT 170 men walked out of the blast furnace and coke ovens at Ford's Dagenham, yesterday, following a meeting between stewards and management.

The management had announced that they intended to close mood was hardening all the they said.

Lorry drivers with loads destined for the Stoke plant yesterday accepted the authority of the pickets and turned away atter their work sheets had been signed 'no delivery' by the pickets.

There was only enough sand in the iron foundry to last until last night, pickets claimed.

Eddie McLuskey, a senior Transport and General Workers' Union steward at the Stoke plant, Asked whether he thought the supplementary register undermined the rights of dockers under the National Dock Labour Scheme, Browne commented: 'This is said, but I don't follow the argument.' Browne reported the Board had a surplus of £8.4m last year compared with f7.6m in 1971.

He warned, however, that big economies would be needed during the year to retain this level of profitability. Asked where the cuts would be made, Browne replied: 'We are constantly reducing labour' He said 600 jobs had been axed on the Humber last year. And he inferred this redundancy drive would be maintained throughout the Board's ports.

The Annual Report spells serious, danger for two ports — Barrow and Newport. Browne at Chrysler one plant down Is part of their plan to phase out the department by mid 1975.

Jane workers claim proper consultation did not take place. Pickets were on duty to greet the night-shift workers.

told Workers Press: "The Ryton strikers have mounted the most impressive picket I have ever seen.

'Lay-ofis from the engine plant should commence pretty rapidly, and I think by the middle of the week the whole plant will be laid Avenger production has already been stopped by the Ryton strike.

A shutdown at Linwood would stop the Imp, Hunter and Humber ranges as well.

But Chrysler yesterday maintained its hard line against the strikers.

Pat Torley, an inspector in body-in-white section of Ryton plant, explained the pact of this on the strik thinking.

WARNING

*What Chrysler is doing should be a warning to all other factory workers not to ever accept Measured-day Work', he said.

"There is no doubt that Chrysler provoked this strike. Its theat to stop investment is similar to that used by the Ford Motor Company during the big strike there in 1971.

'This is part of a general crackdown by the employers everywhere, and I think the Tory government is behind all these attacks. announced that the Board would close down Barrow at the end of this year.

'There is no justification for the losses there. We can't exist on dreams, we must get some traffic. The real truth, the heart of the matter, is that the docks were doomed when the iron works closed. There is no prospect, I'm afraid, for seeing any improvement.' When asked what would happen to the Barrow dockers, he said they would have to go back onto the register.

Newport faces a savage rundown in traffic by the switch of iron ore imports to Port Talbot. Browne tried to gloss over the redundancy threat this poses at Newport by saying that other traffic could be picked up. But he didn't specify where this trade would come from.

'Now Chrysler is hardening its attitude a lot. But our pickets are hardening twice as much.

'We haven't got a tradition of picketing at Chrysler's, but as every hour goes more and more people are joining the picket and we're getting better at Ken Clements, another body-inwhite, inspector said: Rejects were and are definitely used on the line, but of course it's not in the company's interest to admit this.

•When they suspended the body shop for one-and-a-half hours, in effect the firm was not only attacking the body workers but also was victimizing the very inspectors who had rejected the panels in the first place.' STATEMENT Coventry Labour MP, Maurice Edelman, was yesterday attempting to elicit a House of Commons statement from Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan, who is thought to have discussed the strike on Sunday with Heath and Sir Geoffrey Howe, one of the chief architects of the Industrial Relations Act and the 'restrictive' practices' provisions of the Fair Trading Act.

A reference to the Commission on Industrial Relations appears to have been ruled out.

• Toolroom strikers at the Ward End transmission factory of British Leyland yesterday agreed to return to work tonight.

Some 1,500 men laid off were being recalled from last night's night shift on the basis that 'realistic discussions' between the union and management would start soon on the men's claim for parity with skilled electricians.

A question mark was placed over the future of Garston when Browne said that substitute traffic must be found to replace And he added: 'Our job is to run ports not to close them.' Financial results at Hull were slightly worse than in 1971, but the losses were checked during the latter part of the year.

At one point, the Board had felt that these spiralling losses could only lead to the collapse of the port, but Browne reported that unofficial strikes and 'general awkwardness' had been resolved.

'By the end of 1972 the rot had stopped at Hull, Browne said. 'The spirit at Hull is improving - cross my fingers. It's all very fragile. It all depends on industrial relations and on the state of the economy.' JUNE FUND £232—A LONG WAY YET WE ARE still a long way behind in the struggle to raise our Fund this month. Our target is £1,750 and we are now getting close to halfway through this month. We urge you all, dear readers, don't neglect our Fund. Raise as much as you can immediately and pull our figure right up.

We have faced tough strug. gles before and we know It is always your magnificent determination that always pulls us through.

But the Tory government does not sit back for a moment-so neither must we. Let's all go into action right away. See how much you can raise over these next few days. Do everything you can to keep Workers Press right out in front. Post all your donations to:

186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG CORRECTION: In yesterday's report from Belfast it was stated that one of the terms of the settlement was payment of a lump sum of £50 for loss of productivity • through management redevelopment plans. This should have read a lump sum SO CIALIST LABOU LE AGUE MEETINC BLACKBURN 'The Peel Hotel' (Town Centre)

Monda June 25, 8 p.m.

(Pleas note date change)