TRANSCRIPT:



COMOPT BEGINS:"I want to say quite frankly that I condemn...."



ENDS:"....now as part of the mortuary and all those beautiful planes lying idle." DIP SOUND IMMEDIATELY FOR 2 SECOND CUT-AWAY



CUE: IMMEDIATE Then the actual vote.....



COMOPT RESUMES:"Calling for a vote...."



DIP SOUND ON FOLLOWING WORD CUE: "The decision -- the decision is unanimous"



CUE: 66 "Later, Bertram Mycock talked to Mr. Matthews -- who'd said that from his last contact with the employers, any further talks would merely have meant going back to last night's position...



COMOPT RESUMES:"What are your going to do now?"



ENDS:"..I've no intention of trying to arrange one."




Initials RW/BM



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: B.O.A.C. Strike - Third Day.

A mass meeting of B.O.A.C. engineers at London Airport, as the unofficial strike entered its third day, October 16, produced a unanimous "we carry on striking" vote.

Mr. Sidney Maitland, leader of the unofficial strike committee and shop stewards' chairman, seen addressing the meeting, was planning a meeting with B.E.A. steward. This plan brought immediate rumours that B.E.A. engineers might be joining the 4,000 B.O.A.C. men on strike.

At the same meeting Mr. George Scott, national officer of the Electrical Trades Union told the strikers that if the union's claim for an extra 1/2d an hour on the B.O.A.C. pay offer were granted it would work out at about GBP75,000 a year. Yet the dispute was costing the corporation GBP100,000 a day.

One bright spot at the meeting was an appeal to resume work by Mr. Jim Matthews, secretary of the trade union side of the Joint Council for Civil Aviation.

He asked the men to "show that they could behave more responsibly than the employers - by going back to work." He said he had changed his mind after saying the previous night that he would not lift a finger to help end the strike.

He said it "saddened him to see B.O.A.C. hanger as quite as a mortuary and all its beautiful planes standing idle.

But he was greeted by loud jeers when he said: "This industry belongs to us all and we are not prepared to see it destroyed. The employers have been irresponsible. They way to show that we can be responsible is to go back to work at the earliest possible moment."
Two strike leaders said that they would recommend their unions to declare the strike official. The Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians ordered its overseas members to refuse to do any work other than "normal".

And key workers at London Airport were told to refuse to go overseas to help in maintenance work in order to block a B.O.A.C. plan to turn round planes at foreign bases.

Latest move to break the strike was being made by Labour Minister Ian Macleod was arranging emergency talks with both sides.