Albion strikers hold out

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The only partial exception is the miners' strike of 1974. We need more than a national fight, we need an international fight. But what did we do for the Polish workers? We just sent them a telegram.

We have fallen down supporting other workers struggle. So how can we pect support from them now our turn? 'Going to the community is OK. But an all-Party alliance, involivng Tories and the Liberals is a waste of time, though it's the Communist Party's favourite The local Labour councillors will all be ready to come down and have their photos taken standing outside the sit-in. But what they should do is put a freeze on paying rents, with no arrears to be paid after the end of the sit-in.

People are waiting for something to happen, instead of making something happen. They're sitting back, letting British Shipbuilders pick the time.

Stewards should be getting together and organising action now. We should be occupying already. If one yard occupies, then it can spark off spontaneous opposition. 'There's a lead,' people will say, and they'll follow it.

We should be spontaneously, waiting around. without consultation. One militant from the Hackney Black Alliance said that the GLC were in in exit's occupying now, instead of SINCE Monday, May 9 1,300 workers at the BL Albion Plant in Scottstown (Glasgow) have been on strike in opposition to management's demand for 146 jobs to be cut from the plant's 1,750-strong workforce (110 shop floor, and 36 office staff).

1,000 jobs had already been axed over the last three years at the Albion plant before the latest threat. The demand for a further cut of 146 jobs came at the end of March; management said there would be compulsory redundancies if not enough 'volunteers' could be found. The unions imposed a ban on overtime and a ban on any work being sub-contracted out of the plant.

At the beginning of May, the management threatened «to lay off 60 workers without pay unless the overtime ban was lifted. A mass meeting, held on Friday, May 6, voted overwhelmingly to respond with an all-out strike until the threat of compulsory redundancies was lifted.

Management has responded in the usual fashion, sending out a letter to the entire workforce on the second day claiming that the action meant the danger of further redundancies and was purely "self-destructive'. The letter - which came from the managing director of BL trucks division - also demanded that a mass meeting be called to decide the future of the strike!

Management has also warned of possible lay offs in other BL plants supplied by the Albion before the start of the stae, they had claimed that 200 workers there might be laid off at Albion because the plants it supplied were over-stocked.

As yet there has been no official contact by the Albion strikers with workers at other plants, although a meeting of the BL Trucks Division Combine Committee is being held this Sáturday (May 14).

In the short term management has clearly been unsuccessful in its efforts to isolate and intimidate the strikers. In the longer term though, only if active support is won from other BL plants can isolation be prevented and a successful defence of jobs achieved.