Remarks visiting BAe in Bristol ("I have no sympathy with strikes at all")

Document type:	Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue:	Filton, near Bristol
Source:	Western Daily Press, 16 December 1989
Journalist:	Michael Bimpson, Western Daily Press, reporting
Editorial comments:	1005-1115. The Times, 15 December 1989, has more material: "The Prime Minister yesterday criticized the decision by ambulance men to step up their dispute in London, saying it affected the most vulnerable sections of society. ... [she] said the ambulance staff had been offered between 9 and 16.3 per cent, `quite a lot more’ than other health service workers had settled for last May. There was also between 650 and 1,290 pounds in pay arrears since April. She added: `I do hope they won’t step up their action. It hits the sick and it hits the disabled’". ITN indexes record MT in Bristol refusing to take questions on Hong Kong.
Importance ranking:	Minor
Word count:	460
Themes:	Industry, Strikes & other union action, Pay, Public spending & borrowing, Health policy

Foreign rivals are ready to snatch our work, says Premier

Maggie's warning to Aero Strikers

The Prime Minister yesterday launched a bitter attack on strikes—and warned that the Germans would love to take over British work on wings for the Airbus.

She called for ambulance workers to accept a pay offer and for strikes for a shorter working week in engineering to be settled soon.

During a visit to British Aerospace in Filton, near Bristol, Mrs Thatcher said: “I have no sympathy with strikes at all.

“The engineering strikes hit right at the jugular of our competitive forces, hit fellow workers, and are damaging and harmful.

“They are not fair on other workers, not fair on the company, not fair on the country.”

Later, visiting the Aztec West business park, owned by a BAe subsidiary, she said: “British Aerospace has worked very hard to get a supreme reputation which could be lost because a few people go on strike.

“There are a lot of people in Germany who would love to take over the work.”

Mrs Thatcher, wearing a beige, fur-collared overcoat, flew into Filton in a British Airways A320, registered G-BUSH, for a one-hour visit kept secret until the last moment.

Idle

The aircraft landed only a few hundred yards from banner-waving protestors and the Airbus wing assembly hall, now idle through a strike at a BAe Chester plant.

80 Filton workers are laid off and another 500 are on short-time working as a result.

The Prime Minister was at Filton to open officially a £15 million BAe technical centre, where 1,000 will be employed, mainly on Airbus design work.

In speeches, neither BAe chairman Professor Roland Smith, nor Mrs Thatcher shied away from admitting close links between the company and the Government, despite the controversy over BAe's takeover of Rover.

Professor Smith, alleged to have come to a secret deal with former Trade Secretary Lord Young over £38 million worth of “sweeteners” to take over Rover, yesterday highlighted BAe's role as Britain's largest exporter and employer of graduates.

And he said: “We are grateful for the tremendous support that the Prime Minister personally and her Government have given to our endeavours to market our products in international markets.”

Mrs Thatcher said: “We do work closely together and we are very proud to work with British Aerospace.”

Science graduate Mrs Thatcher congratulated BAe on its determination to stay ahead in its industry.

BAe Filton engineering union convenor Mike Hazell, who refused an invitation to the opening ceremony, said last night: “The attitude of the blokes was one of absolute contempt and disgust that the woman came down.