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Containerbase is open but empty!
Page 6
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by CM reporter OPEN but empty is the state of the ill-fated Birmingham Containerbase this week. Now losing 0,000 a day, the future of the base is bleak and, although its owners have undertaken not to take any action before national negotiations with the Transport and General Workers' Union have begun, the possibility of permanent closure is now very real.
General manager at the base Mr Eric Sharrock told CM this week that the base was "technically open," but he admitted that "nobody in their right mind would use it." He said that staff—who last week staged a sit-in (CM. October 3I)—has just not turned up • this week. If any vehicle did show up a volunteer force would undertake its handling.
No one in Birmingham seems to know how to describe the situation at the base. It's not a strike, not a sit-in, not a lock-out I was told this week. Union boss Mr Alan Law, however, did not think this important. "It doesn't matter whether it's a strike or a lock-out — it won't re-open until the security pass issue is settled." He maintains that official union policy prohibits union members from holding security passes — which is why the matter has been referred to national level. Mr Law told CM that, whatever the status of the dispute, all of the 70 men involved who were still out of work were now receiving unemployment benefit. "But we have fixed up half of them with new jobs already," he said. "We can have another 10-week stoppage if we want."
Meanwhile, efforts to find a lasting solution to the dispute have not speeded up since reaching national level last week. Mr A. Packer, Containerbase Ltd's personnel officer, told CM that attempts to open negotiations had not yet met with success. The TGWU officer involved, Mr Ken Jackson, was away in America until the middle of next week and talks could not begin until he returned.
Mr Packer reiterated that workers at other Containerbases had carried security passes for five or six years without objection. Mr Jackson had signed an agreement, which had never been rescinded, covering passes in 1969.