UNION COURT IN ACTION T&GWU FINED €5,000 Women join

WOMEN workers at the tion's works, Openshaw, Manchester, are pictured above on Tuesday after voting to sit-in. They will do their stint — apart from night shift - in occupying the factory.

The Openshaw among the nine Rail talks break up PAY TALKS affecting 200,000 railway workers broke down yesterday when the three unions walked out of negotiations with British Rail.

There was no increase in BR's 'final' offer, which the unions rejected on Tuesday. With the transfer of bonus payments, it would give railmen a basic £19.50 a week and drivers £30.

The ASLEF, footplatemen's executive met yesferday afternoon and split cn industrial action while 15 MPH NOW CYCLING, ALLOWED BYRORDER engineering plants in the Manchester area who are continuing their factory occupation in support of the engineering pay claim.

They are engaged in a pitched battle with the local employers for better wages and holidays.

at a tenth factory, Joseph Robinsons, of SalPHILIP the National Union Railwaymen will not discuss the situation until middle of next week.

The unions made no request at yesterday's meeting for British Rail chairman Richard Marsh to intervene in the talks.

At the same time an official 'failure to agree' has not yet been registered.

'It doesn't look so good at all, said Ray Buckton, ASLEF general secretary, ford, did not оссиру after management postponed a decision to lock them out for working to rule in support of their claim.

Meanwhile 3,500 workers at Ferranti's two Manchester factories went on a one-day strike yesterday as part of the campaign.

yesterday's breakdown.

'I'm very disappointed we've reached this impasse in the negotiations. But I'm still hoping. It was up to the executive to plan the next move' , he added.

NUR general secretary Sir Sidney Greene said: 'An extra 50 [on railmen's basic] would make it a good settlement'.

But there was no question of industrial action at this stage as the negotiations hadn't yet been completed. all its funds may be seized. This was the shock judgement of the National Industrial Relations Court yesterday after it found the Transport and General Workers' Union in contempt of order to stop 'blacking' action on Liverpool docks.

Should the union deeide not to pays the fine in a fortnight's time, it will have just three more weeks grace before all its assets, both 'protected' and unprotected, are taken over.

Yesterday's orders were made on application by Heaton's Transport (St Helens) Ltd, who alleged that despite an order made last Thursday two of their lorries had been refused entry to the docks.

The drivers of the two lorries and their T&GWU branch secretary appeared before the court on witness summonses issued late on Tuesday night.

After hearing counsel instructed by Heaton's, affidavits from the firm's joint managing , directors and the evidence of the three St Helens men, the court ruled that there had been deliberate action by union officials to breach its orders.

In giving the verdict of the five-man court, president Sir John Donaldson said that the NIRC existed not just to protect one particular law, but the whole system of law.

Failure to comply with an order of court demonstrated a contempt for. law and for freedom under the law, he said. 'Therein lies the seriousness of present proceedings.' He cited three occasions on which the T&GWU had had the opportunity to appear before the court, but had chosen not to do so.

The union had been strictly within its rights in taking this course of action, he said. It might, however, have been wiser to take a diffèrent course.

Sir John read a letter to the court from Jack Jones, T&GWU general secretary.

It said: 'In accordance with the TUC advice, we will not be participating in the proceedings and will therefore not be in attendance on March 29' The court president commented sharply that. in the context of contempt of court such a reply must be 'almost without He hinted that while on this occasion the decision to attend or not attend had been left to the alleged contemnor's good sense, it might not be in the future. 'He may be required to attend as the court may see fit', he said.

Sir John continued: 'On the evidence, no attempt whatsoever was made by the union to prevent this breach of the court's order.

'Their contempt in that respect has, if anything, been aggravated by their failure to be represented on the occasion of this hearing and offer any explanation whatsoever in mitigation.' court had given full consideration union's obvious misapprehension position.

'We have decided that as this is the first occasion--and I trust it will be the last-upon which an order of this court nas been disobeved will suffice if we impose a fine of 65,000, Vill suffice if we Sir John said that, under the Industrial Relations Act, orders for compensation against a registered union were limited to £l a member, and against an unregistered union limited to those of its assets available for support of industrial action. But there was no limit on fines for contempt.

The £5,000 fine would be suspended for 14 days to enable the union to attend court and offer some explanation. But the court also made an order that if it failed co attend and it the hne was not paid, a writ of sequestration-seizure of the union's whole assets-—would be issued after a further three weeks.

Earlier, Sir John had issued a sharp warning to Henry Hull, secretary of the T&GWU 6/364 branch, who gave evidence on a witness summons issued in St Helens at 11.30 p.m. the previous night.

Asked for advice by Heaton's drivers Austin French and Terence Dowling, he had told them not to talk to the firm's solicitors about the case until he had taken union advice.

The court president told him:

*Anybody who tries to deter a witness from giving evidence is guilty of one of the more serious forms of contempt it is possible to commit, and any court will punish anybody who does that.' All three men had given evidence that they did not know exactly what Heaton's wanted them to talk to solicitors for at that stage.

Sir John later told the court he was not criticizing the branch secretary's actions in the situation as he had seen it.

Andrew Abdela, counsel for Heaton's, told the court that conciliation in the dispute had already begun. From a commercial point of view the company did not wish to cause more industrial unrest than it possibly could, he said.

The court president pointed out, however, that whether or not the dispute was settled did not affect the issue of contempt.

Full hearings of both the Heaton's order and a similar one granted to Bishop's Wharf Ltd, of Warrington, on Monday will take place on April 12. It is in that action that the issue of unfair industrial practice under the Industrial Relations Act will be decided.

AROUND THE WORLD