Scotts pickets hit by Tory anti-union laws

Scan page 14

THE Laurence Scotts workers, who in the last seven months have had to fight their employers, their union leaders, sledgehammer wielding bailiffs breaking their occupation, and helicopters breaking their picket lines, have now become among the first victims of the Tories' Employment Act.

Last Monday and Tuesday, Scotts workers supported by trade unionists from other Manchester plants, miners from Brodsworth pit, and members of the Right to Work Campaign, picketed Mining Supplies, the Doncaster headquarters of their boss, Arthur Snipe. All six gates were picketed, and there was a good deal of success in turning back lorries carrying important supplies.

The Brodsworth have blacked all Scotts products, seeking to extend ing via the Donce of local pits and shire NUM.

Fire However, Scotts boss Arthur Snipe is determined to answer fire with fire. On Wednesday he applied for an injunction in the High Court against six named Scotts workers - Frank Stubbs, Dennis Barry, Pete Rowan, Dave Hallsworth, Billy Partlan, and Phil Penning.

The Employment Act forbids workers to picket anywhere other than their own workplace. The judge therefore had no hesitation in finding that the Scotts workers had no right to picket other premises of their employer, and issued Laurence and are the blackster panel the Yorkan injunction on the grounds that none of the six had ever worked at Doncaster, forbidding them to attend the picket line again.

Pete Rowan, chairperson of the Joint Shop Stewards Committee, pointed out that none of the six had even been present in the court to hear and answer the charges against them.

''This shows", he said, "that trade unionists cannot simply forget about the Employment Act. It is still waiting to be used, and the Tories intend to strengthen it to break strikes like ours"

The case will come before the Chancery Division of the High Court in Manchester again on November 30. It is important that all trade unionists should make even greater efforts to intensify support for the Scotts workers.

by Kevin Feintuck And union conference decisions opposing the Employment Act must be upheld in practice. If this Act is used successfully against the Scotts strikers, then other employers will be encouraged to use it against their own workers. The injunction should be ignored, and there should be a mass picket of the next court hearing on November 30.

The Yorkshire NUM also needs to take up the requests for blacking - which are now six months old. Laurence Scotts strikers received yet another kick in the teeth when Arthur Scargill again blocked a call from delegates to the Yorkshire NUM Area Council for blacking of LSE and Mining Supplies products.

Ihis is despite the tact that the Doncaster panel of the NUM (Regional Committee) has already called for the blacking of LSE products in their area.

Despite a fierce argument, all that. was passed was a motion of support for the LSE strikers which said nothing about practical steps.

In answering criticism, Scargill said why should miners be laid off when Minng Supplies men are still working.

This was all the more tragic because two local haulage contractors who move much of Mining by John Cunninghan (Dinnington Arthur Scargill has made the nationalisation of mining supplies a key point in his election programme -a demand to open the books of the National Coal Board and suppliers such as Scotts should be used to deepen and clarify this call.

* Mass pickets every Monday at Mining Supplies, Carrs Hill Industrial Estate, Doncaster. Messages/money: G.Fryer, 20 Round Croft, Romilly, Cheshire.

Supplies material had agreed not to cross the picket line at Doncaster under the threat of blacking:

As Dave Douglass, Hatfield Main delegate remarked: "A picket line is a class line and anyone who crosses it has gone over to the other class".

Scargill's action is a disgrace to the Yorkshire NUM, many of whose members are campaigning tooth and nail get him elected as national president. NUM branches should condemn his action and demand the reversal of his totally negative approach.

He has said on numerous occasions that he would not prostitute his beliefs and principles to get the president's job. But what is he doing now if not precisely that?

Whatever happened to the spirit of Saltley Gate in 1972?

Brother Courtney, who has