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opment. leadership ready and willing waders shy away from an all-out, generalised fight from Tories ES Weighell's in the first instance, and Buckton's in the second.

By his treachery on the pay issue Buckton has now treated the worst possible bonditions for ASLEF to -ight in defence of the eight lour day.

Management, cock-a100p, 'are going. further lown the BL road. Learning heir lesson from the last ISLEF strikes, they have pne out of their way to ry to keep some form of ervice running, to urge -dividual train drivers to ely the strike, accept the ew rosters and come in to vork, and thus to exploit -very weakness in the trivers' ranks.

At first sight this is a adicrously expensive policy -giving guaranteed week •ayments to 200,000 yorkers in order to bring tressure to bear on 24,000. lut the BL experience has hown management that this actic can help crack the will if union leaders. We can xxpect no repetition of their BL last November: a strong st tactical blunder in the steel strike of 1980, where management, once the strike had been called, shut down the plants, locking strikers out, thus sacrificing an important means of weakening the will to fight.

What is in effect, then a partial lock-out of those ASLEF members who reject the new rosters, could however be escalated into an all-out Edwardes-style "over the top" confrontation if it fails quickly to crack the strike.

BR cannot for long afford to pay the guaranteed week money without rike and a speedy sell-out running a full service. The Board is now publicly talking of sacking the striking ASLEF members - and reinstating only those who accept flexible rosters.

While it seems reasonable to discount talk of BR pressganging ASLEF drivers into the NUR as something it would be difficult for other TUC unions to stand by passively and watch, we should not underestimate the tenacity of the BR Board in its current stage of develThey say that even a worm will turn. And Peter Parker, having been firmly GENERAL AND MUNTHPAL MINERS UNION WE CAL "siw.. 1 bin WHO Fore 45.

4905*** trodden on by ASLEF earlier this year seems, under the tuition and guidance of ORC, set on emulating his more flamboyant colleague in British Leyland.

A defeat for. ASLEF would be a major setback for trade union organisation not only on the rail, but , throughout British industry. ORC and its ilk would offer its profitable strike breaking talents to more and more managements, developing in reality a handbook for union busters, training management nobodies to become Michael Edwardes.

Like many of the martial GENERAL AND MUNICIDAL WOMERS INITI 12%

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