Part of Orders of the Day — Strike, London Docks – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 July 1949.
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
12:00,
13 July 1949
I am quite sure that the words used by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for West Derby (Sir D. Maxwell Fyfe) have been exceedingly helpful to everyone of good will who is concerned with this dispute, and I hope that I shall say nothing which will mar the excellent spirit which he has induced in our discussion.
The Government hold the view that the proper way of dealing with industrial matters is through collective bargaining between employers and employed, through representative organisations of employers and representative organisations of employed people, and that anyone on either side who lessens the authority of the recognised organisations commits a very great crime against our industrial peace and organisation.
Throughout, we have been in touch with both sides to this dispute. I think I ought to say this: my hon. Friend the Member for the Exchange Division of Liverpool (Mrs. Braddock) spoke about a meeting at which there were six employers and five employees. I understand that as a rule, and certainly on all the bodies of that kind with which I have been connected, the vote goes by sides and not by numbers. It is not said that there were 11 present and that six voted one way and five the other. What happens, as I understand it—I have been in a few such organisations, sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other—is that the employers say they have reached a decision and the employees say they have reached a decision, and that if the two decisions can be made to marry, there is an agreement; but there is no issuing of three-line Whips to ensure that there is a full attendance on one side in order to defeat somebody on the other side who may be a bit slack.
I want to deal with a meeting of the Port Labour Executive Committee for the Port of London held on 28th June, 1949, at which there were three on the employers' side and five on the work-people's side. No matter what may be said about the way the people voted, it is quite clear that the employers did not get a Majority of those present on that occasion. They considered the position in the docks. On the employees' side, Mr. Barrett, the general secretary of the Stevedores' Union, was present, and there was also present Mr. Condon, who, I understand, is the leading representative on this Board of the Transport and General Workers' Union. The minute records that the Committee unanimously passed the following resolution:
The Port Labour Executive Committee condemn the action of the men in withdrawing their labour in breach of national and local agreements, and call for an immediate resumption of normal working.
That represents the views of both sides and that was the view which, as I have been informed, was taken by the union representatives to their members. It is
no part of the duty of the Government to intervene between the representatives of the workpeople and their members, any more than it would be to intervene between the other side and their members. We have been hoping—and we have kept constantly in touch with the matter—that the men would respond to this decision of their unions, conveyed to them by men of differing political opinions, and that the dispute would be brought to an end in that way.
We were reproached by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Mr. Eden) for what we did with regard to the troops on Monday. I think what the Government did with regard to the troops on Monday was amply justified. At no time have we endeavoured to coerce the men into adopting the point of view which their representatives and we believe to be right. I gave notice to the House on Friday, as soon as it became evident that the ballot was merely being used as a cloak to continue a state of confusion in the docks, that we would advise His Majesty the King to send a message to the House which we would bring before the House on Monday.
When the ballot was declared, for what it was worth—and it was not worth very much for there were only 496 good votes passed out of a total membership of some 6,000 or 7,000—it revealed a majority for going back to work. We had every reason to hope that on Monday morning when the docks opened there would be a resumption of work. It would have been the height of folly on our part to put the troops in at the same time that the men might have been returning to work.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
The House of Commons votes by dividing. Those voting Aye (yes) to any proposition walk through the division lobby to the right of the Speaker and those voting no through the lobby to the left. In each of the lobbies there are desks occupied by Clerks who tick Members' names off division lists as they pass through. Then at the exit doors the Members are counted by two Members acting as tellers. The Speaker calls for a vote by announcing "Clear the Lobbies". In the House of Lords "Clear the Bar" is called. Division Bells ring throughout the building and the police direct all Strangers to leave the vicinity of the Members’ Lobby. They also walk through the public rooms of the House shouting "division". MPs have eight minutes to get to the Division Lobby before the doors are closed. Members make their way to the Chamber, where Whips are on hand to remind the uncertain which way, if any, their party is voting. Meanwhile the Clerks who will take the names of those voting have taken their place at the high tables with the alphabetical lists of MPs' names on which ticks are made to record the vote. When the tellers are ready the counting process begins - the recording of names by the Clerk and the counting of heads by the tellers. When both lobbies have been counted and the figures entered on a card this is given to the Speaker who reads the figures and announces "So the Ayes [or Noes] have it". In the House of Lords the process is the same except that the Lobbies are called the Contents Lobby and the Not Contents Lobby. Unlike many other legislatures, the House of Commons and the House of Lords have not adopted a mechanical or electronic means of voting. This was considered in 1998 but rejected. Divisions rarely take less than ten minutes and those where most Members are voting usually take about fifteen. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P9 at the UK Parliament site.
