TGWU snub to S&K Civil servants fight DHSS cutbacks

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Supporters have started to raise money for the strike committee, particularly to the very high legal delena costs which the strikers have incurred, following : the bosses' court injunction.

There has still been no support from the local TGWU. A lobby of the TGWU District Committee by 30 strikers and suppor ters, ended with the officials being forced to hear the Asian strikers, but refusing to allow them to have any translators.

Another picket will be held this Saturday (16 October) from 8am to 12.30. More support is needed. Messages of support and donations to S&K Strike Committee, c/o 88 King and the thist (fight for a Rampide Orgonser 28 Middle Lane, London N8 for 60p incl. postage. FOUR DHSS offices are now on indefinite strike in Birmingham. After the walkout over staffing levels at Erdington, union officials have been encouraging other offices in the area to come out too.

In Oxford, Harcourt House DHSS have been on strike for two weeks. There are reports of other offices also walking out.

In Bury SCPS (Society of Civil and Public Servants) members have been on strike against regrading. In Dundee they've been out over this too, while in Newcastle the newly drafted in Special Claims Control team was met by a picket of union members.

Although the strikes all have similar origins, there is a difference. The action on staffing levels has been spontaneous while the others follow national union policy.

The government's aim to reduce the civil service from its 1979 level of 730,000 to 630,000 in 1984, and the introduction of new schemes such as Unified Housing Benefit (which will involve thousands of redundancies) are bound to lead to further spontaneous walkouts.

However, CPSA/ SCPS militants in Oxford point out, the civil service unions are organisationally geared up for selective strikes only, with high levels of strike pay.

They fear that the national leadership will try to restrict any fight on cuts to the Birmingham region. To win, the fight on staffing and cuts has to be national.

This summer CPSA members voted by a narrow rising unemployment and cuts in stati had increased the pressure in the offices all round.

But the DHSS section executive decided against calling for national action against the cuts. This failure to give a national lead can now be challenged. All the civil service unions involved have made these strikes official. , To stop the cuts, other offices must follow the lead given in Birmingham and Oxford.

The rest of the labour movement can play its part - employed and unempl oyed. Messages of support, donations and assistance on the picket line are always needed. Health unions and unemployed groups should especially mobilise their members.

In Oxford, a successful joint protest by CPSA/ SCPS, Unemployed Workers' and Claimants' Union, NALGO, Ruskin Students' Union and the Claimants' Defence Committee, was held outside South Oxford Middle School, now being used as an emergency payments office.

Petition Over 500 signatures have now been collected on the OUWCU petition supporting the strikers' demand for at least 25 extra full-time permanent staff. (They've been offered two.

Joint picketing at South Marston Road and the school is being planned, along with joint speaking engagements at union branches, Labour Party wards, and unemployed groups. A joint committee of CPSA/SCPS, NALGO Social Services, OUWCU, CDC, and NAPO has been formed. Employed and unemployed, unite!

Contact: Richard Horton, CPSA, Room 337, Fiveways House, Islington, Birmingham 15; Morag Robertson, CPSA, 24 Beechcroft Rd, Oxford; Claimants' Defence Committee, 44b Princes St, Oxford. Name Address Organisation Land for at Please fill in:

Send, with £2.50 Registration fee (£1.50 unwaged) and s.a.e. 01-607-5268 41 Ellington St., London N7

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