Government was drawn into ardersier oil yard dispute.

(From Aberdeen Press & Journal (UK))

Prime Minister Harold Wilson was drawn into an inter-union dispute which posed a major threat to the early exploitation of North Sea oil and gas.

Secret Downing Street papers showed the extent to which top Labour politicians became embroiled in industrial relations difficulties almost immediately after gaining power.

According to records in the National Archives, work on a key part of a platform for the Piper field was stopped at Ardersier fabrication yard, near Inverness, by a recognition dispute between the Boilermakers' Society and yard operators McDermott, who had signed an exclusive recognition agreement with the engineering and electrical workers' unions AUEW and EETPU.

Mr Wilson was sent a memo on June 13 warning a speedy settlement was vital because another part of the platform was ready to be shipped by barge from Cherbourg, and the work putting them together had to be done during a narrow weather window in the summer.

As the dispute escalated Mr Wilson met Lord Thomson, head of the Thomson Organisation which had a stake in the Piper oil field, who stressed the "extreme urgency of finding a solution" if the barge was not to be diverted to other work for competing firms in the Norwegian sector.

The fear was Britain would lose ...