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Didcot ‘Luddis row flares up

27th January 1978
Page 6
Page 6, 27th January 1978 — Didcot ‘Luddis row flares up
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A scathing attack on the black legging said to have been imposed by Transport and General Workers Union members on the Didcot distribution centre was made in the Commons last week by a Labour MP.

Hard on the heels of a statement by Transport Minister William Rodgers that "deve lopments seem unlikely to have a significant effect on the volume of freight traffic transported by rail", Ronald Atkins declared that what was happening at Didcot was deplorable.

Mr Atkins (Preston North) one of his party's transport experts, said he had gone to the Didcot site last year and, although both the TGWU and employers had denied that blacking existed, or at least did not admit to its existence, he was convinced that there was blacking.

He repeated that the situation was deplorable, but did not want anyone to think that these shop stewards of the TGWU men on the site were typical of the whole of the trade union movement.

Work was being done behind the scenes, went on Mr Atkins. It was common knowledge that he had taken this matter to the National Executive Transport Subcommittee of the Labour Party.

"This is Luddism, and the future of this country does not lie in Luddism. It is the graveyard of our aspirations for industrial regeneration", declared Mr Atkins.