By Friday last week, some 5,000 apprentices from nearly 60 fimms were on strike in support of their charter of demrn’se This was the climax to a fantastic 1,000 march that wnt through the huge Hillington industrial estate. At the giant Rolls-Royce factory the marchers waited outside as a delegation approached the gates to seek permsssion to speak to the apprentices. A mass meeting followed outside the Remington Rand factory where committee members gave details of meetings to be held on the Sunday and the Monday. At the meeting on Sunday, 70 delegates discussed plans to spread the strike to Paisley, Johnstone and Greenock,
By Monday, some of the lads had returned and others were considering following suit, They believed that the main aim of the operation had been achieved, i.e., to draw attention to the fact that appentices were no longer prepared to wait indefinttely for an answer to their claims. Another factor was the report that the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions is to meet representatives of the engineering employers' federation on December lst to "review replies" on part of the apprentices' claims - after a wait of several years. The talks will be around the issue of negotiating rights for all apprentices, four weeks annual holiday for junior workers and the abolition of night work for under 2ls, Apprentices on the Clydeside will await the outcome of these talks but they are likely to take action again if there is any more prevarication.e