PORTRAIT OF A WEEK
With a flourish of publicity, and in good time for this week's Conservative party confer- ence, the Government unveiled its industrial relations reform programme. It contains echoes of the Donovan Royal Commission recommendations, Mrs Barbara Castle's abortive In Place of Strife proposals and the Tories' own pre-election Fair Deal at Work policy statement. Mr Robert Carr, Secretary for Employment and Productivity, has introduced the concept of fair and un- fair strikes, with a new Industrial Relations Court under a High Court judge with power to fine offenders and award compensation to victims. Moving away from the idea that agreements between unions and employers should be binding only if the parties ex- pressly wish it, the Government now intends to impose binding agreements in strife-ridden sectors of industry.
First reactions to the policy were a dumb- founded silence from the unions and a cautious wecome from the Confederation of British Industry. But in the real, as op- posed to the theoretical, world of industrial- relations, the council workers' strike con- tinued with a threat to public health from untreated sewage.
President Nixon's car was pelted with eggs when he drove through Dublin on the last leg of his European tour. At the Old Bailey the Hosein brothers were found guilty on all charges of abducting and murdering Mrs Murial McKay. Quebec extremists kidnapped the British trade commissioner in Ottawa, demanding a ransom of more than /200,000 in gold. Mr Anwar el-Sadat was nominated as Colonel Nasser's successor.
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