[through the introduction of continental-style four-shift working which…]

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through the introduction of continental-style four-shift working which wreaks havoc with the home and social life of workers.

One worker already on the four-shift system explained what "Last week I worked Monday and Tuesday on days, Wednesday and Thursday on noons, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday on nights. At the end of the week I didn't know where I was.

SO spoke to a senior TGWU branch official at the plant. His name is being withheld because of the possibility of victimisa. tion.

SO: What has happened about Michelin's redundancy programme?

The Belfast factory is due to close next March. The governare employed there, and producIT IS vital that management's attack on conditions at the Stoke factory be beaten back, or it will be the signal for other employers to follow their lead.

The key to the dispute is probably the distribution warehouse. If that can be blacked then Michelin's UK operation effectively comes to a halt. It is a large site and picketing is likely to get rough to close it down.

The labour movement in Stoke must lend all support to the Michelin workers for mass pickets. The Labour Party and Newiy elected councillor redundancies -and Michelin counts the profits Chair refused to allow disenssion on the matter. Subsequently, though he agreed to write in a personal capacity as Leader of the Council to the unions to say that the Council would give whatever support it could if they contacted him.

That is a start but much more is needed. The matter will be raised at the City Labour Party for more positive action from the Council. The bosses are using the Tories' Parliamentary majority in their class war. Stoke Labour Council should throw its full weight behind the Michelin workers and declare class war on the bosses. SO supporters on the City Labour Party, and SO councillors will be doing all they can with or without the Labour tions is an attempt to jack up the rate of exploitation which does not suggest that their goal is to close down the plant.

The international experience of Michelin also lends itself to this interpretation. An international conference of Michelin unions has just taken place in Geneva.

SO asked what was happening internationally? Is Michelin acting in the same way in other countries?

'We haven't had a full Broad THIS time last year a strike over pay declared by a left-wing NUR Executive was called off by a right wing AGM.

This year the same executive has accepted a 4.5% pay offer while the, conference has shouted down BR Chairman Sir Peter Parket and voted for industrial action against closures.

BR management have not sought to include yet more productivity strings in this year's 'offer'. Instead they will continue pushing to fully implement those already agreed. So in gratitude that BR has stopped hitting us so hard, the NEC has dropped the NUR claim of nearly 28% and grabbed the miserable 4.5% with both hands.

But they haven't. really stopped hitting us. The 4.5% offer is the way they have chosen to hit us this year. 4.5% is just not enough!

Meanwhile at the AGM it is all change. The vote to affiliate to CND reportedly only had two votes against and the inclusion of industrial action as a weapon in our campaign against Serpell reverses last year's decision to rule out that option in our campaign against closures.

But probably the best sign of a new mood in the NUR is the treatment meted out to Peter Parker. The 77 delegates had accepted the invitation to Parker to address the AGM. But when he actually turned up at 10 am they decided instead to continue the discussion on redundancies, and to stretch it out a bit they also had a coffee break. When he rose to speak he was shouted down five times with accusations that he was helping the Tories ruin the railways, trying to break up the closed shop, and implementing the Serpell report.

The President, Tommy Hain, lone of Weighell's cronies), tried to get one of the most vociferous delegates kicked out but was prevented by the Secretary of the Standing Orders Committee: '"There will be no vote at an NUR AGM to defend the chairman of BR", he said It is a pity that Len Murray did not get the same reception the following day when he said that we should collaborate more with the Tories on their anti-union legislation.

It seems the delay made Parker miss the train back. But if the NUR delays any more, we could all miss the train.

The CRE suggests the unions should give a higher priority to translating conference decisions into shop floor action agains:

Any call to implement confer. ence decisions is normally received with horror by union leaders, and this suggestion -which would involve local and national officials, convenors and shop stewards being prepared tc fight racist attitudes amongst their membership and giving a lead and support to black workers prepared to fight for their rights - will be no exception.

But the CRE report will not be any more favourably received by the government, which is urged to implement equal employment policies and to enforce clauses stipulating such practices by government suppliers. The CRE also seeks changes in the law to speed up action against discrimination.

But the Tories are no more keen to take such steps than they are to pressurise the police to investigate cases of racist violence where detection rates remain astoundingly low.

The CRE, as a largely toothless pressure group lacks any real purchase on reality: it can expose the racism in society but do little to end it. Its chairman, Peter Newsam summed up its attitude when he commented that the Tories would not need more civil servants to implement anti-discrimination clauses:

"You just need a change in the heads of the people who are running this country's affairs."

•Rather we need a change in the people, and the system the! administer.

In fighting to get that, the bes: place to start is within the labou movement itself, in the fight te remove racists from leading posi tions and forge a fighting unity of black and white workers in the struggle against all forms of dis crimination on the shop floor.