Aslef Victory: Lessons for Us All

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Organıser FUND heir three per cent pay rise i return for no more than *tering talks on productiv4. which they were always ling to do anyway.

The BRB, which rovoked the dispute by Musing to take the productity talks all the way brough the rail industry rocedure, has now agreed • put those talks back into bat procedure.

This shows that workers re prepared to light, given wen minimal leadership, and -en can beat the bosses and dae Tories.

The ASLEF executive food solid on the eight hour kay. But it also stood solidly gainst any efforts to evelop the train drivers' iction beyond the one-day tad two-day strikes. • If the leadership had een willing to base itself on id to develop the militancy the rank and file, then arely more could have been pon. The whole British Rail ed up and cutback plan soak have been knocked ack, and NUR members ould have been mobilised • reject the strings already aposed on them by. thei raders.

As it is, train drivers will ave to beware concessions a jobs and conditions made the ASLEF leadership in . negotiations now to rollow.

Basic stand

Another lesson from this victory is that slick negotirating is the least important qaality for trade union leaders. ASLEF general secretary Ray Buckton ASLEF pickets developed no subtle tactics. He did nothing but repeat ASLEF's basic stand on the eight hour day and on the three per cent wage rise agreed last summer being not conditional on prior agreewhich ended last week (analysis, page 14). The Ley, land stewards had skilled researchers working on an alternative plan for BL's truck business, They were at great pains to appear reasonable. In would-be subtle tactics, their demand was not the simple saving of jobs, but negotiations'.

The most prominent Purty leaders at • Leyland were members of the Communist They proved disastrously weak when it came to the crunch because they were hog-tied by the Communist Party's strategy of always manoeuvring, always trying to avoid head-on confrontation with the bosses and sharp clashes with the right wing in the labour movement, always looking for the clever way round.

The same problem has led to repeated sell outs by CP leaders in BL Cars, too; most notably at Longbridge.

In a rough and ready way, the ASLEF leaders were more accountable to and more under pressure from the membership than some of the €P convenors in BL. And accountability is ten times more important than left wing words and reputations.

*Democratise the labour movement! Conference sponsored by Socialist Organiser and* London Labour Briefing, April 3. See page 13 for details.

rage AS WE go to press, Plessey workers will be appearing in court to explain why they. defied the interdict instruct-

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