Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Rhagfyr 1973.
The hon. Member for Salford, West referred to the Transport and General Workers' Union. It appeared before the court in a case called Cory v. the TGWU. In that case the company claimed that its remedy lay in the High Court and not before the NIRC. The defendants, the TGWU said :
that it would be very advantageous to have the matter dealt with by the Industrial Court where there is valuable machinery for conciliation.
This was the Transport and General Workers' Union saying that it did not want that case dealt with by the High Court but wanted it transferred to the NIRC, where there was valuable conciliation machinery. That shows that the union believes that the court has a valuable system of concilation not enjoyed by other courts. It demonstrates that the union thought that the court's practice and procedure was preferable to that of the ordinary courts.
When the court came into existence it was faced with hostility on the part of the major unions. Within three months of its establishment the TUC decided that it should be left to individual unions to decide whether to defend their interests at the court when under attack.
Thereafter, all unions save the AUEW have done so. In May 1972, in the railway's dispute, the unions were represented. In the same month, during the docks dispute, the TGWU was represented. At the TUC conferences this year a motion calling for a total boycott of the court, moved by the AUEW and the Fire Brigades Union, was rejected. The Fire Brigades Union now attends the court and takes part in its hearings. The EUEW stands virtually alone in its attitude, even in matters of unfair dismissals. It does not even pay compensation awarded to its own workers by industrial tribunals for unfair dismissal from the union's employment.
The fact that it stands virtually alone is perhaps the reason for the trouble in the case of Con-Mech. I should like to confirm the version of the facts given by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Fylde (Mr. Gardner). It is worth dealing with these facts, one section of which was given by the hon. Member for Salford, West. He said that it was a small engineering firm with 67 employees. On 18th September, two employees began soliciting the others for membership of the union. On 19th September they demanded that the company recognise the AUEW as the sole bargaining agent. The company declined because it did not believe that that was the desire of the majority of its employees. This was followed by a lightning strike.
On 20th September—all this took place in 24 hours—the district secretary wrote saying that the union endorsed the action. Picketing was established and placards announced that it was an official AEWU strike. As a consequence, suppliers, haulage contractors, even postmen and milkmen, were turned back from the premises.
On 26th September, an application was made to the court to restrain this industrial action under Section 101 and one relating to recognition under Section 45. On Thursday 27th September, the court made an interim order restraining the industrial action, but it was specifically stated that it would not come into operation until Monday 1st October to permit the parties an opportunity to get together. But no notice was taken by the pickets, so on 9th October, a hearing on the disobedience of the interim order was held by the court. Again the union refused to appear. It was its deliberate policy to boycott the court.
Thus, on 10th October, there was an order as to the contempt of the order made on 27th September. That was defied by the union and the writs of sequestration were issued to the four commissioners. But the court did not levy the fine then, as it might have done ; it said that it would give further opportunity to the union to think again and to come to make representations if it were so minded. The court said that it was taking an exceptional course in delaying and that this was an opportunity for the union to think again.
But there was no action by the union, so writs of sequestration were issued to the four commissioners, from the chartered accountants, Messrs. Price, Waterhouse. There was a standard form requiring those officers to take in the property of the union up to £100,000. After that procedure, the court took no part in any consequential procedure.