The following letter was sent to the Editor of The Times on June 11th, by Ken Coates and Tony Tophame "Deer Sir,
It is hardly surprising that Lord Pearson's Enquiry failed to win the Seamen's confidence, because it ignored one of their least publicised but most important canplaints. This was summed up by the statement of the Hull seamen:
"Shipowme’s cry that they cannot afford it. The seamen cannot judge * “thas, ‘and neither can Mr.Gunter, because profits are the best kept
secret. of the industry ».. the shipowmers must prove their case
by opening their books," Mr.Hogarth is not alone in endorsing this point. So, before the strike, did Professor Fogarty, who wrote to you in February complaining that the new Companies Bill ignored the industrial relations side of companies, and failed to ensure the publication of data which is vital for negotiation and consultation,
But Professor Fogarty's reservations about company law at large apply with redoubled force to the shipping companies, Indeed the Jenkins Committee specifically urged that those exemptions which permit shipping companies to conceal their reserves, and transfers to and from reserves, were unjustified and should be withdrawn.
How can any Report which is drawn up without the basic facts be acceptable as.a ‘compromise! ? How does so famous an empirical investigator as Mr.Clegg come to be associated with such an ill-founded document ? Would it bankrupt the economy to require the shipowners to open their accounts to trade union perusal ? We think not,
If* the seamen insist that a precondition of further negotiations must be that the shipowners! accounts be unlocked to them, this will not only mark a great step forward in industrial democracy, but establish one of the criteria upon which a true incomes policy might develop,"