Organise the jobless!

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were prepared to accept.

Last week we had a stewards' meeting - with no recommendation from the JNC..

A resolution was moved to reaffirm our position that the 6 and 9 minutes are not for sale, and to call mass meetings for Wednesday night and Thursday morning. This was carried unanimously.

On Wednesday during the day shift management carried out another sounding, offering a last chance' ' If workers agreed, they could have a back bonus of around £10.50; if they didn't, they would lose the £10.50 and the washing-up time would simply be abolished.

The company claimed only 45% were opposed to this - but that is certainly an optimistic figare for them. In the trim shop, or instance, management only When it came to the mass meetings, the position was even stronger. On the night shift only 3 voted against the stewards' recommendation. On days, a very big meeting saw Bob Fryer, the Convenor, speak very well.

Fryer had asked management to say how much the 6-9 minutes was worth - and they said £1.50 per week. So he asked why • in that case we shouldn't now be earning £28.50 of the £30 bonus we are supposed to be eligible for.

He also pointed out that the extra ½ hour a week management are demanding is worth an estimated & 25 million a year, which he calculated at £1.000 per worker. He said that when he suggested to management that this £1,000 be split down the middle - giving an increase of £500 per worker per year, the company tory - though from this plant it's hard to see any evidence of a Tory voter - and secondly the role of national union officials.

Holiday

Already we hear that at 8.15 am on the Monday morning after the holiday all the AUEW stewards have to get on a coach to Luton to meet their union Executive.

You can bet that Duffy and Co. don't want to congratulate them on the struggle so far! The AUEW stewards have been the weakest in the dispute.

But if we can keep the national officials out of it, and if the mood holds up, we could still be out again on the issue management thought they'd killed a month ago! UNLIKE those who are idle because they live from profits and dividents, the unemployed have no established share in the privieges and power of society. Only by strength of numbers and organisation can they make their voice heard.

That's what the People's March, and its concluding rally on June 5, should be about. And they should also be an opportunity to lay the basis for organising work after June S.

The first organising job is to get the voice of the unemployed heard on June 9. And the call from the organised unemployed can only be: vote Labour, fight jobs! Labour Parties, especially in London, should be mobilising to make June 5 the biggest anti-Tory demonstration ever held at election time.

For the ongoing organisation of the unemployed, the trade union movement has so far done far too little. Region 6 of the TGWU has organised the unemployed into union branches; in some areas NUPE has made an effort to unionise youth on government cheap labour schemes.

Official

Apart from that the official trade union movement has been indifferent or hostile to the organisation of the unemployed. Trade union leaders have given full backing to the government cheap labour schemes. The TUC has promoted centres for the unemployed - and, working in league with the government Manpower Services Commission, imposed a tule on them of 'no politics, no campaigning.

Our job now must be: to organise the unemployed, and youth on government schemes, into the unions wherever possible; to organise and win labour movement support for unemployed workers' associations; to fight for democratic control by the unemployed in the local unemployed centres; and to work for joint action • of employed and unerployed in struggles for jobs and This Thursday, 2nd, the People's March for Jobs arrives in London.

On Friday at 3.30 there is a rally at Southall Community Centre; on Saturday, a Festival for Jobs from noon to 8pm at Crystal Palace Bowl;

on Sunday, a concluding march and rally, assembling in Battersea Park at noon. against cuts.

The People's March could and should have been a boost to this organising work. Unfortunately for the most part it hasn't been; and its organisers have systematically silenced the anti-Tory slogans that marchers wanted to chant. For reports on a missed opportunity, see pages 7 and 10. DO ii .. i. r : Ei

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Meet March!