Chaos in NUT pay fight

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WHILE IT is reasonable to assume that the rumours that Fred Jarvis is about to change his name to Fred Karno are untrue, there can be little doubt of the fact that under his leadership the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is doing a fair impersonation of a headless chicken.

In the week beginning March 15, many teachers were encouraged by the union executive to call off their withdrawal of goodwill action, because local education authorities had agreed to support arbitration and the union campaign was one of local pressure.

Now, literally a week later, NUT members are being asked to resume this action because "the pay claim is now a national issue'.

Fortunately many teachers were already aware of this, and had refused to call off the action. In addition, many schools and associations had begun to call for strike action.

Faced with continued management intransigence and an increasingly restless membership, the executive have now attempted to hold the whole charade together by what they call an escalation, to include one-day nocover action (which is existing practice in many areas hit by cuts) and the threat of half-day strikes (for which they have made no preparation) if the management side do not concede arbitration.

Behind this, what teachers are being told is that the 12 per cent pay claim has in fact been abandoned. The greatest danger right now is a sell-out at the Burnham meeting on Thursday March 25.

Unlike the nurses' leaders, it is highly likely that Jarvis, Casey and Co. would leap at an offer of 6 per cent despite the fact that it would mean a massive cut. in real pay for their members.

Any such sell-out would be a blow to teachers' morale, and would in fact be • green light to right-wing suthorities like Hampshire to immediately begin savage uts in jobs.

In this situation, the Socalist Teachers' Alliance has ightly called for motions iom schools and associajons reaffirming the original pay claim, coupled, with a lemand for a national strike evy and a call for national trike action.

COM Leyland Action Committee: c/o 194 Dawlish Rd, Birmingham 29 immediately take this up, and begin to fight for emergency local association meetings, insisting that the strike levy be used at once. to support the Barking teachers who have been on strike for four weeks now against redundancies. This would bring an important link between the jobs and pay fights, which the NUT leadership seeks to avoid.

At the same time, it would create better conditions for the week of strikes beginning on March 29 and bring an important link between the jobs and pay fights, which the NUT leadership seeks to avoid.

At the same time, it would create better conditions for the week of strikes beginning on March 29 and culminating on April 3. Militants in the NUT should use this week of strikes to create a massive groundswell of active support at local level for indefinite strike action to hit the Tories where it hurts most, in their beloved exam system, which begins after the Easter holidays.

Most particularly, NUT militants must recognise that this fight has to be taken into the NUT Easter conference, to transform NUT's policy and commit NUT to taking on the government on both jobs and wages.

THE NINE-WEEK strike at Plessey Capacitors, Bathgate, ended on Monday 22nd.

The workers handed back control of the factory to management, after a deal under which Arcatronics (a new company with close connections with Plessey) proposes to save 80 jobs, a quarter of the number employed before the occupation began.

Work for these 80 has been guaranteed for just one year.

This result has left many of the workers confused and HUNDREDS of nurses, laundry workers, domestic, porters, canteen staff, etc poured into Manchester on Tuesday 23rd. Snouted and Low Pay, No Way Smash the Four • Per Over 3,000 workers in the Manchester and Salford area struck for half a day and lobbied the regional health authority headquarters in Manchester city centre.

The unity between the different grades of workers was obvious. There was no talk of special payments for different sections.

The action was initiated by the Joint Shop Stewards' Committee in the North Manchester district, by calling the lobby of the RHA ainst the recommend: lion of the union full-timers, official support would be drawn.

It was of course a better offer than the one which caused the Laurence Scotts Electromotors workers to lose official support. This highlights for the ut accountab they are si ent. *Just they on?' comments NUPT sa and holding a mass meeting where a nurse proposed half day strike action and got an overwhelming response.

Other areas soon heard the news. Mass meetings in Salford and Withington also resulted in a decision to walk off the job.

As contingents of workers filed into the centre of Manchester, it was obvious that the mood in the NHS has rapidly changed. Workers are sick of low pay, sick of broken promises, and sick of the inactivity of the national leadership in the health service unions.

What's needed now is a plan for action at national level to smash the four per cent and win the full claim.

Mil yet again the need nion leaders to be le to the people upposed to represwhose side are was one of the I overheard.

OF "They weren't out to give us a slap across the wrist for being bad boys. What they were after was nailing us to a cross and then throwing it in the Clyde."

This is how Abie Courtney, former shop steward at the Hunterston oil rig yard in Ayrshire summed up the industrial tribunal held in Glasgow last week to hear the case of four shop stewards sacked from the yard in the aftermath of the strike there in September-October 1980.

The four stewards, who argued that they had been victimised for their union activities were ex-convenor Ronnie Munro (Boilermakers Society), ex-deputy convenor Abie Courtney (Boilermakers Society) and ex-shop stewards Dominic Sullivan and Gerry Ryan (GMWU).

The tribunal was preceeded by yet another piece of sharp practice by • the by Anna by Anna Lunts (NUPE Lunts (NUPE shop steward, Prestwich Prestwich hospital) hospital) stewards' solicitors. Although they had known about the tribunal for fifteen months, their solicitors informed the stewards only days before the hearing itself that they didn't believe that they had a worthwhile case and were therefore pulling out.

Throughout the hearing, therefore, Dominic Sullivan was left to argue the stewards' case - against the two QCs, solicitor and solicitor's junior, employed by the multinational which owned the yard.

This in itself meant that the odds were stacked against the stewards.

The QCs argued that the stewards had not been reemployed after the strike because they were in the habit of spending too much time away from their place of work before the strike and because they had been arrested during the strike itself.

at A determined move by BL management to abolish the serry agreement movement of labour was made in the Cowley A sembly Pant last week.

The move came with the reduction of the Ital programme from 21 per hour to 14 - a move which foreshadows the phasing out of the model in preparation for the introduction of the LC 10 range.

The refusal of top management to operate the seniority agreement in the resulting redeployment of the labour forced resulted in a series of strikes in the stores areas and the paint shop. Whilst the agreement has now been restored in the stores areas, the paint shop enters its fourth day of strike action as we go to press.

Crooke In fact, though, the QCs' arguments show that union activities were the factor behind the sackings. Absences from the workplace were necessitated by the stewards' union activities and even the arrests arose from the men carrying out union activitiespicketing during the strike.

The QCs argued that since the stewards' union activities were opposed by the union executive, and resulted in 48 arrests and convictions, it was not really trade union activity at all.

Management witnesses denied that the yard had been riddled with health and safety risks, denied ever making anti-union statements and denied any attempt to buy off the convenor and deputy convenor with offers of jobs as foremen.

The hearing finished last Friday, 19 March, and the verdict is due out this week.

The stewards have no illusions about the outcome. 'The odds were stacked against us from the beginning, '" said Abie. "Management is out to crucify us. We are going to lose the case."

While the tribunal may

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78 March 25 1982

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