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BRITAIN
Troops on call for
water-supply strike
LON DON, Monday (AAPReuter).—
Troops stood by to
intervene today as Britain's
water and sewerage workers
began a national strike which:
could disrupt industry and contaminate
domestic water supplies.
Last-minute pay talks broke up
without an agreement just before
the midnight strike deadline.
The Government had 15,000
;troops on standby, ready to intervene
if vital supplies were en-"
dangered. But union leaders said
they would scrap plans to maintain
emergency covcr if the army was
brought in.
Chances of a quick end to the
dispute hinged on a meeting of the
full union leadership due to give its
final verdict on the State-owned
water authority's latest pay offer.
But union negotiator Mr Eddie
Newall said last night, "I have
grave doubts whether this offer is
going to be acceptable".
The Minister for Environment,
Mr King, criticised the strike, telling
a television interviewer,
"Water is an essential national service.
You really can't use the pub.
lie in this way." ..
The unions want a 15 per cent
pay rise this year. Management has
offered between 5.5 and 6 percent.
On the table for today's union
meeting is a proposal by an independent
mediator, for 7.3 per cent
. over 16 months, which has been
accepted by the water authority
but provisionally rejected by the
union, negotiators.
Millions of Britons facing the
country's first national water strike
have already been advised to boil
their drinking'water.
Loss of water could force power
stations and factories to close and
might even lead to sewage seeping
into city streets.
There was special concern
among farmers;
"Livestock farmers depend an
awful lot on water," a spokesman
said.
But an official of the water
authority said that in most areas it
would : be' some time before the
effects of : the strike were felt.
"Most of the machinery is automatic,"
he said. "Pumping stations
will continue to pump and when
you turn your tap on, you'll get
water."
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