The Worst Sell-out Yet

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SUBSCRIBE! ay Jim Denham "It's a dirty sell out, the dirtiest one we've ever experienced - and we've experienced plenty" ". That was how one T&G steward summed up the feelings of track workers at Longbridge, after last Friday's vote to end the 4-week strike.

The workers had shown extraordinary courage and determination. The strike had started just one week after the betrayal of the pay review and held solid. despite all the company's pleas, manoeuvres and implied threats. The bossstrike on Monday (30th November) by "throwing open" the gates ended in total failure and only succeeded in spreading and strengthening the dispute.

The bosses had another card left to play • - the weakness of the union leadership at every level, and in this case at plant level, in particular.

'Sacrosanct'

On Tuesday 1st December (the day after the Company's strike-breaking ploy failed) Moss Evans of the T&G met with Michael Edwardes and emerged with a proposal that would have given the management everything they wanted, except that the 25% reduction in relaxation allowance would be delayed for a 4-week "cooling-off" period. This suggestion met with universal derision, including from local T&G officials and the Longbridge Works Committee.

However on Wednesday 2nd, the Longbridge Works Committee itself entered into negotiations with the Many readers tell us they think Socialist ser has improved ince we went are our circul. maroved + ÷ : =09 " 3m ÷ :30 management. The talks went on into Thursday morning when press and TV announced that a "peace formula" had been 'hammered out" and would be recommended for acceptance by the Works Committee.

That day, Works Committee loyalists amongst the Shop Stewards were enthusiastically arguing that the strike had already been won. Certainly all the active strikers expected that whatever else the deal contained, it would leave the "sacrosanct" 12% relaxation allowance intact.

However many people were worried that the deal was being kept such a deadly secret and that there were no plans to call a joint shop stewards meeting before a mass meeting scheduled for Friday.

The reasons for this became apparent at FriDost free. That's £9.60 is three months for candles af 5, and 1£18 i Dunces of !).

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28 #A.daie Lane, London N8. Please make cheques payable to Socialist day's: meeting. The deal not only sold out the 12% relaxation allowance (reducing it to 10½%) but it also added an extra hour to the week's night work — overturning an agreement for 38 hours on nights reached in 1957!

Waverers

As the facts of the deal emerged the meeting became increasingly heated. The track workers from CAB1, who had been the first to go on strike previously, were particularly angry that other workers who had joined the strike later and, in many cases, didn't work nights at all, were allowed to vote on the deal.

The first vote was so close that the Works Committee called for a parliamentary-style division. As the meeting divided amidst shouting and confusion, Works Committee Chairman Brian Chambers encouraged waverers to cross from the 'reject' to the 'accept' side of the division. The final result was very close - with the deal only being accepted by 46 votes.

The strikers from CAB1 were furious. Clearly the vote on whether or not to return should have been restricted to those affected by the night work increase.

Beat down

How such a rotten sellout came to be recommended by the Works Committee in the first place is still not entirely clear. It seems that a minority of three on the Works Committee (an SWP member, a dissident CPer and an independent) did oppose the deal at least