continued, Gunter Yields to Union Pressure Ray Gunter Minister of Labour, decided last Monday not to use his stat~ utory powers to defer a wage agreement covering 800,000 white-collar workers in the engineering industry. This means that those earning less than £18.10.0 a week will immediately receive increases ranging from 15s to 17s 6d a week for men and up to 15s a week for women, In a letter to the Engineering Employers Federation Ray Gunter made it clear that he has taken this course reluctantly after being told by the Federation and the three unions involved that they were willing neither to limit the increases to those earning less than £15 a week nor to await a report which the Prices and Incomes Board is preparing. The employers and unions argued that the settlements related to claims originally advanced before the pay freeze started a year ago and therefore there was "an element of comnitment which could and should be met," now the period of severe restraint had ended. Both sides impressed the Minister with the force of their arguments and he finally agreed that the special circumstances did not justify him using his delaying powers.. The Ministry of Labour does not consider, however, that allowing these rises for those earning under £18 10 Od sets that figure as a new lowpaid standard for white-collar workers, since it does not regard this as an agreement for low-paid workers. Stressing the snail-like pace of the Government's withdrawal from the pay freeze Ray Gunter said he hopes that other pay claims will not be made on the basis of this settlement. "Railway Dockers" Strike
Unofficial one-day strikes by members of the NUR yesterday hit three of the twenty-two ports operated by the British Transport Docks Board, Action was taken at Southampton, Newport,Mon., and Hull because the dockers are dissatisfied with the 5 per cent pay increase for all the 10,500 employees of the Board agreed by management and unions last week, Cargo ships at Southampton were made idle by one-day strikes on Monday ~~ of both last week and this. Six hundred dockers took part in this week's stoppage, which also affected three passenger liners. The Southampton men have also threatened a series of lightning strikes in support of their claim for a 17 per cent pay increase, At Lowestoft, the only other port affected by last week's strike, 90 NUR men decided to stay at work and await the views of men in other ports on the five per cent increase offered by the Board, The movement of . shipping at Newport docks was halted when 350 "railway dockers", including shunters, tugmen and lock-gate men, stopped work, They are demanding a
per cent increase and have decided to stage a repeat walk-out next Monday. Movement of cargo by rail from the dock was at a standstill.
difficulty. Quayside cranes were idle, but some dockers continued to work using ships' cranes and ship movements were not affected.
P27 NUR men at Hull docks went on strike after 12 ships had berthed without