[Laurence Scotts' boss Arthur Snipe, after telling the…]

Scan page 4

Laurence Scotts' boss Arthur Snipe, after telling the workers that 'the sit-in constituted a termination of contract and therefore employees relinquish eligibility for redundancy pay", , has now sent a redundancy cheque to every worker.

This move by Snipe is undoubtedly a response to the agreement struck on July 1st by Laurence Scotts stewards and Arthur Scargill whereby a blacking and mass picket is to be put on the key Mining Supplies factory Doncaster. Realising the noose was tightening around his neck, Snipe turned to his last remaining card: he contacted Boyd and Cure.

Snipe contacted Boyd, or 'Black Jack" as he's known to LS stewards, at the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions Conference at Ayr last week with a simple proposition: "Call off the blacking and scheduled mass picket and I will open up discussion on the future of the Manchester factory.

Like a pair of Uriah Heeps from a Dickens novel, Boyd and Cure immediately instructed regional CSEU officials to call off the prospective mass picket of Doncaster. When LS stewards got wind of this, an emergency Shop Stewards' Committee meeting was called which voted 18 to 4 to go ahead with the mass picket, for Monday 6th July.

As Peter Rowan, Chair of the Joint Shop: Stewards Committee said, 'We've not come this far simply to let Boyd hand it to Snipe on a plate. Within half an hour of the stewards meeting that agreed to go ahead with the picket 114 people had volunteered. And we'll be sending two bus-loads every day until Snipe surrenders."

Problem

What's more the BOC Combine Committee are stopping the delivery of crucial oxy-acetylene and Snipe knows he can't last long. On the financial front the occupation is receiving £3,000 a week with an extra £1,400 a week "coming on stream" from a levy of the Manchester North AUEW District. This compares with £10,000 a week during the two-month long Gardners dispute.

But all is not roses and light with the dispute. The arrival of redundancy cheques through the post has caused a problem for the leading stewards. Peter Rowan put it in a nutshell:

•What do you say to a bloke who has had no money at all for ten weeks then all of a sudden a cheque for £3,000 drops on the mat? At first we thought of setting up a trust fund into which all the money would be paid until after the dispute. But on second thoughts this was quite unrealistic. The key thing to hammer away on is that this struggle is about jobs not money, and though we have no intentions of stopping members from spending their redundancy pay, we think that those faint hearts who have simply held on for the cash should go. What we are willing to do is negotiate a deal with Snipe whereby after it's been decided to keep the factory open, the workers will pay back a nominal amount back to the employer each week.

But there could be a double edge to the issuing of redundancy pay. It could foreshadow Snipe appearing before the courts and saying: "I've fulfilled all my obligations under the law, now can I have an injunction to evict these trespassers." ' This eventuality has been prepared for, however. John Tocher (AUEW Divisional Organiser) has stated that if so much as a Panda car was to appear with an injunction, all Confed convenors in Greater Manchester would be requested to assemble their members at the Openshaw plant, promptly!

Moreover, an important feature of the Scotts struggle has been its effect in animating pre-existing political divisions within AUEW officialdom. For while Boyd and Co's role speaks for itself, IS stewards think that John Tocher and Duggie Daniels (Manchester North District Secretary), given the bureaucratic constraints of their position, have played an important role in supporting the struggle. Indeed politics of your officials do matter.

The stewards were also elated after their visit to Scargill last week. It was only afterwards when they read Arthur's press statement that they noticed an ambiguity. According to Pete Rowan, Scargill said, "We'll start the blacking, as soon as you stop Mining Supplies" But if LS pickets stopped Mining Supplies - they would not need any blacking! Maybe Arthur's coyness stems from the proximity of the NUM Presidential elections?

What is clear though is that the week beginning July 6th will be the most crucial in the whole struggle. The mass picket will begin, and it'll be the biggest test yet of Prior's secondary picket rulings.

Volunteers for picketing should ring 061-223 3815. The coaches will leaver every morning at 8 am from Louisa Street, Openshaw, Manchester.