AINTENANCE men at the
Castle Donington power station walked out on February 24th. The men are to seek support from other maintenance workers in power stations throughout the country. Pickets are out at the gates of the power station and the number now on strike is in the region of 250, a strike meeting at Castle Donington was told. The men are protesting against the management’s interpretation of the terms of an agreement, which states that the workers shall serve a five-day week. They say that the management has put forward a rota for the week which does not give the best possible coverage. This means that the men would be liable to be called out to do overtime at any time. Also, the management’s suggestions offer a standard weekend work rate of 26 weekends per year. This, say the men, is unfair. In previous years they have worked as many as 50 weekends and irregular overtime hours. The strikers want a definite number of weekends laid down, but want it higher than 26, as weekend work, with time-and-a-half on Saturdays and double time on Sundays, constitutes a large portion of their pay.
—George Powe
March 4, 1965 — THE WEEK