BSC swings the axe

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T&L-WU WITH another swing of its axe, British Steel has announced that it will cut 3,000 more jobs.

Tens of thousands have already gone in recent years, and there is no end in sight.

Bill Sirs, leader of the main steel union, ISTC, has promised resistance to the latest cuts - but on a scale that is scarcely adequate.

Overtime bans, limited stoppages, and workto-rules are the methods being considered, he said.

Sirs also called for import controls - this at a time when steel companies in the US are pressing for tighter controls to keep BEC (including British) steel out of the US. The US steel bosses complain about the state subsidies to the EEC steel corporations: in the US more than 100,000 • steelworkers are laid off.

Who wins from the roundabout of demands for import controls in country after country?

The ISTC is also formulating a pay claim for a 9.5% increase from January I. The claim includes reiection of local productivity deals.

ISTC leaders say that they expect a zero offer from BSC, but no plans yet exist for action.

Some increased left influence in the ISTC is however shown by a recent executive decision -hotly contested by right-winger Sirs - to concede policy-making powers to the union conference.

Until a few years ago ISTC had no conferences at all - and when it started having conferences, they had no power. This year's conference voted to demand policy-making powers.

ISTC has also submitted a resolution to this year's TUC calling for the unions to break all links with the Tories and bosses in 'tripartite' committees.

SAY ADA PETIFE IN THE early "70s, 10,000 Scottish steelworkers lost their jobs. In 1980 alone, it was 11,000. Now BSC have announced a further 1,000 redundancies for this year, with the closure of Parkhead Forge, a cut of 320 jobs at Ravenscraig, and the virtual closure of Clydebridge steelworks - where 535 of the remaining 700 workers are to go. Six years ago 3,000 people worked at Clydebridge.

When BSC Plates Division James Mackenzie drove into Clydebridge to announce, he was met by 200 workers throwing apples and safe. ty helmets at him and shouting 'Get out, you bloody bastard'.

He didn't expect any militancy, since the general feeling in the works has been one of demoralisation and cynicism since the national strike, with the rundown of the works, the closure of another Cambuslang steelworks in 1980, and the recent redundancies at nearby Hoover.

But, as convenor Jimmy Burtney said, "We realise that if we don't fight here, we won't have the chance to fight on the dole queues"

Unemployment in Cambuslang is one in four.

The only positive action taken so far is the ISTC and APEX making sure that no orders are diverted from Clydebridge. Other options are now being discussea, including stopping key production, and a demonstration through Cambuslang sponsored by the local Trades Council and Labour Party Splits Splits over the effects of these cuts on the rest of the Scottish steel industry have already appeared. Jimmy Burtney has said: "Ravens: craig is under threat, and the closure of the plate mill is the first step in an orchestrated plan to destroy the Scottish steel industry"

But the convenor Ravenscraig, Tommy Brennan, has said that this is "absolute rubbish" • as has the MP for Motherwell, Jeremy Bray.

BSC are certainly considering 1100 more redundancies for May 1983, and works supplied by Ravenscraig are being closed or cut back.

Action

The attitude of Bray and Brennan does not exactiy inspire confidence in their willingness to help build a mass campaign to defeat the BSC plans. Nor does that of STUC representative Dougie Harrison, who said on Scottish TV news: "We need government action now"

The government is active - active in closing down the Scottish steel industry! What we need is working class action that will echo the Clydebridge workers' message and kick out the Tory government.

McLEISH

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