Campaign against dc)(1(vvorl A UNIFIED campaign against extension of the
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dockworkers employment scheme is to be mounted in the coming weeks.
At a meeting on Tuesday the directors of the Confederation of British Industry agreed to lead the fight, in which they will be joined by the RHA and the ETA. It is expected that the Government's proposals for reorganising dockwork — including the controversial five-mile-limit plan—will be outlined in the Queen's Speech on November 19.
The CBI is opposing the proposals on three main points, which all have the same theme: that Government would be giving dockers even more power to hit at the nation's economy in times of dispute.
It claims that food supplies would come under the dockers' control since most cold stores would be within the five-mile corridor and would have to employ registered dock labour.
The second point is that a dockers' strike would affect employment since vital imports would be stopped. And the CBI also claims that the dockers would be in an even better position to halt foreign currency earning exports and so harm the country's economy.
The FTA president, Mr Bob Beckham, told the Association's annual conference last week that the Government scheme was the "most undemocratic scheme which this country has ever seen proposed to Parliament."
No attempt was being made to discuss the national interest, or industry's interest or even the interest of workers generally. "Do we really want to set up yet another platform from which this country could be held to ransom?" he asked.
The prospect was one of extending the inefficiency, the restrictive practices, the inflexibility and the influence of a few extremists to whole new areas of the distribution chain. Mr Beckham slammed Mr Michael Foot, his junior Ministers and top Department of Employment officials for declining invitations to attend the conference and explain the plans.
But a Department of Employment spokesman hit back when he told CM this week that the invitations had been issued only at short notice. "One can't expect the Minister to drop everything just for the FTA," he said.