Oiling the Machinery

Piccadilly Circus once again gave forth its familiar neon glow. Parliament put away its candles and kerosene lanterns. Elevators could be counted on to go up and down. Unheated flats grew warm, and unlit streets became bright. The blackouts (TIME, Dec. 21) that for nearly a week had affected as much as one-quarter of Britain at any given moment were finally over.

Capitulating to growing public anger and to popular support for the Conservative government's hard-line stand against inflationary wage increases, the 125,000 Electrical Trades Union (E.T.U.) workers abandoned their crippling power slowdown. While the E.T.U. power men did not give up their demands (a $13.92 increase over current average weekly earnings of $57.60), they submitted to adjudication of their wage claims by a Special Court of Inquiry charged with formally taking the national interest into account.

Alien Provisions. Whether the E.T.U.'s capitulation proves to be a lasting victory for Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath depends on whether or not the Court of Inquiry rules in favor of the Electricity Council, which had offered the workers only $4.80 more a week. Nonetheless, Heath's success in preserving his hard line has for the moment given pause to imminent inflationary wage claims by other nationalized public workers, including employees of Britain's railway, post office and waterworks. It has also increased his personal popularity. A Gallup poll taken during the E.T.U. slowdown indicated that 45% of the populace approved of Heath's performance as Prime Minister, while 42% were dissatisfied--a dramatic reversal of the 39% v. 45% showing last month.

Heath's image as a tough-minded inflation fighter was also improved last week when Parliament approved in principle his government's Industrial Relations Bill. The bill would make labor contracts legally binding, with damage payments levied against unions that violate its terms. It would also introduce secret strike ballots and 60-day cooling-off periods for proposed strikes that threaten national health, safety or the economy.

The Labor Party, led by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, angrily denounced the bill and compared it to America's Taft-Hartley Act. Said Wilson in a speech to Parliament: "We do not believe that we have anything very much to learn from the U.S. in industrial relations matters. Yet we are being asked to vote for a bill which almost exclusively conveys into our law irrelevant and alien provisions from the United States." Nevertheless, the bill was approved by a 44-vote margin--14 more than the Tory majority.

After overseeing approval of his labor measure, Heath flew to Canada for a meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau, followed by a two-day visit with President Nixon. In Washington, Heath and Nixon discussed foreign policy and economic problems. Heath stressed that Britain's role in Europe, through its proposed entry into the Common Market, could only benefit what he called the "natural relationship" between the U.S. and Britain, as well as "the Atlantic Alliance and the whole Free World." He indicated concern with Congress's inclination toward protectionist trade policies that could cut by 20% Britain's annual $2.2 billion in exports to the U.S. The two heads of government also issued a joint statement calling for the resumption of the Jarring Arab-Israeli talks. And they conferred about this week's U.S. decision to establish a small air-naval-and-communications base on the British-held atoll of Diego Garcia to help offset the Soviet Union's growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean.

The amicable talks apparently ended a period of relations between Washington and London that Heath himself had described as being bogged down with "rusted machinery." All in all, the Prime Minister seemed to have successfully oiled machinery on both sides of the Atlantic.

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