THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: No agreement reached as shipyard strike continues

Shipyard workers arriving at the Grosvenor Hall in Belfast in May 1965 to attend a mass meeting to discuss the labour dispute which had lead to a two week strike. More than 3,500 men were made idle because of the dispute between the Boilermakers Society and management. By the end of the meeting it had been agreed that it was back to work, a decision which the News Letter noted was welcomed by both sides of the strike. (NEWS LETTER ARCHIVES)

A further attempt to reach a settlement between the Belfast shipbuilding employers and the members of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, who had ceased work three months previously on their application for a wages advance of three shillings per week being refused, had been made the previous day reported the News Letter at a conference between the parties held at the offices the Ministry of Labour.

The joiners were represented by the delegates who had met the employers week previously.

Since the strike began the employers, Messrs Harland A Wolff and Messrs Workman, Clark, and Co Ltd, had become members of the National Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation so that the situation had to be dealt with on a national basis.

The News Letter noted: “The joiners on the Clyde, it may be mentioned, are paid at the rate £2 19s per week, compared with the Belfast rate of £3 0s 9d.”

The following statement was issued the close of the conference the Ministry of Labour: “The adjourned joint conference between the representatives of the local shipbuilding firms and the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers took place today, as arranged, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour (the Right Honourable J M Andrews, MP, DL), who was accompanied Mr J P Gordon, Parliamentary Secretary

“Since the previous meeting week ago the employers intimated that they had attended meeting of the Shipbuilding Employers’ Federation, of which they were now members, and that wages matters, the present claim, relating to questions of general importance to the industry, would dealt with the federation upon a national basis.

“The representatives of the men expressed their disappointment that the employers were unable to make any offer in regard to the original wages claim, and undertook report the course of the negotiations to a meeting the men.”

The statement concluded: “After further full discussion of the whole position the conference terminated.”