Rank file must comtroL!
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-01-27Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 9 →
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UP THE PRESSURE nd gas workers egotiations the 1%. That would erms.
₫ 7.3% now? anths. And 7.3% over more than 5.9% over period deal - which he NHS, in BL, and ger for wages to be • without any trade expect inflation to ing year. Import and ready rising sharply. Wading in untreated sewage every day, doing repair work in decayed Victorian sewers sometimes as narrow as the narrow est seams worked by coal miners, working waist-deep in icy water on jobs at reservoirs, regular spells of being on cal 24 hours a day -water workers' jobs are often among the most difficult and Strike committees have been set up at water and sewage plants, organising picket lines, ensuring that the craft worker respect those picket lines and that NALGO members hold to their union's national instruction not to cooperate with scabbing.
Control of emergency cover - for hospitals, for dialysis machines, and for the fire service - will also be an important task for these strike committees. It should be firmly in the hands of the rank and file, to ensure that 'emergencies' are not used as a pretext for strike-breaking.
Many water workers are also arguing that negotiations should be under the control of the local strike committees, or rather of a national strike committee elected by them and accountable to them.
While the employers' representatives have been militant and ready for a fight, the union representatives have been practically apologising for the strike, and constantly ready to negotiate on almost any basis.