2 weeks locked out in

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ACTION The Leyland Action Committee brought together militants from different BL factories to get the £20 claim adopted and then to help develop the strike. Now it will be working to draw out the lessons of th betrayal and organise to prevent repetitions.

Contact: Leyland Action Committee, 194 Dawlish Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham 29.

such as an old boot or a wipedout in the winks of ar 30 DHSS workers in Dudley, West Midlands, who belong to the CPSA and SCPS civil service unions, are refusing to prepare cases for investigating squads hunting for people traudulentiy claiming benetits. Staff at Halesowen are being asked to take similar action. Union leaders see Dudley as a test case. The CPSA said that if any of its members are suspended the dispute could be widened.

Claimants have . long suffered the activities of these investigators. Now new super squads called Specialist Claims Control (SCC) are continuing their work after trials in the West Midlands and the North West.

Local. DHSS branches should be calling for national action these squads.

Local groups of the National Unemployed Workers Movement and the Right to Work Campaign should invite local DHSS workers to their meetings to explain the problems of workers in DHSS and to discuss solidarity action by the unemployed to back DHSS workers taking action in their defence.

sy John Shields AFTER being locked out of their factory by management on November 5, the 270 AUEW employees of J.H. Fenner, Hull, returned. to work two weeks later not much better off.

The lock-out came after pay negotiations had been exhausted and management had refused to move on their offer of £6 for grade 1 and Advertisement ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC STRATEGY A revolutionary Marxist •mitique Workers Action 5p Sp plus postage from PO Box 135, London N1 ODD deart entre discretion. riscrefion The original demand from the shop stewards was for £30 across the board.

Letter Leading up to the lockout management had tried to undermine the shop stewards committee by first sending a foreman down to the shop floor to try to sell the deal to the men. When this failed they resorted to a typical Michael Edwardes tactic and every employee received a letter from the company and a stamped addressed envelope and a ballot paper.

The management clearly thought that by giving the men a weekend in which to think it over they would get a vote in favour of the company's offer.

In fact on Wednesday 4 November management informed the District Secretary that 537 of the ballot papers returned had voted in favour of accepting the deal.

A mass meeting was held on November 5 at which the District Secretary asked for a show of hands of those who had voted for acceptance of the deal. the meeting only 31 voted in favour of the deal.

When management were told of the result by the District Secretary they said they could not understand the change in the attitude of the men.

Nevertheless, they finally got the message that the pittance they had offered was not acceptable and issued a letter stating that because of the industrial action they had undertaken, the workers would be taken off the clock.

Never This referred to the fact that the men had been working to the nationally negotiated minimum time rates for day work, which management do not recognise.

Immediately the lock-out came into effect, the men mounted a blanket picket on all gates leading into the factory. This in itself knocked the management sideways since the AUEW had never picketed the factory before.

GMWU workers in the rubber division ection who had settled their wage claim themselves running out of work as the picketing began to bite. With only three to four days supply of rubber, the management were over a barrel and the engineers were strongly placed to win the dispute.

But unknown to the shop stewards committee the District Secretary had gone behind their backs and approached management for informal talks to come to some settlement and get the men back to work.

Despite the willingness of the men to fight on the shop stewards, because of the underhand actions of the District Secretary went into talks with management who offered £2.30 on the bonus.

At a mass meeting the District Secretary was able to sell the offer to the men after going into print in the local paper arguing that now was not the time to take on the management. Despite the sell-out and the bitter feelings amongst the men as they returned to work, the possibilities now exist to build on their new.

found militancy. Leyland

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fraud' squads