New attack on 'ard jobs Ship!

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Chloride hold oul A LAY delegates conference with representatives from all British Shipbuilders yards will be held on October 28 in Newcastle. The Conference is being called to decide on what action is going to be taken against British Shipbuilders? announcement that 2,000-3,000 jobs have got to be shed by January 1984.

British Shipbuilders made their announcement at a meeting between the Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee, which represents the unions, and themselves in Newcastle on Wednesday, October 12. They also reaffirmed that there would be no pay rise this year, except for those yards which accept productivity deals and British Shipbuilders Survival Plan, which are aimed at doing away with all trades, creating a felly ex be, mobile wor bosses, loder Dosses command.

Lobbied

The meeting was lobbied by hundreds of shipyard workers from around the country, demanding no enforced redunLAST Wednesday, 13th, the management at the Chloride factory in Manchester attempted to use the threat of the sack to end the strike by 550 workers.

The strikers refused to be bludgeoned back to work. Only a handful of workers crossed the picket line.

The next day management issued dismissal notices to all the strikers, but even this failed to Lol dancies and no wage freeze.

At Cammel Lairds, stewards have been told that there will have to b. 650 redundancies by January 1984, whether or not there are any more orders.

The Boilermakers' stewards have been informed that 384 of their members will be made redundant, and have responded by formulating a recommendation to be put to a mass meeting later this week, which says if British Shipbuilders does not withdraw their threat of enforced redundancy, then from October 28 no vessels will be handed over until the threat is withdrawn.

The stewards also reaffirmed their support for a previous lay delegates meeting decision to take over the yards if there is one enforced redundancy, or a pay freeze.

If this recommendation gets the support of the mass meeting, then the Boilermaker delegates to the October 28 conference will be urging other yards to take the dent support for the strike. The dismissal notices were ignored.

The dispute is now entering its seventh week, after the workers, on September 1, overwhelmingly rejected a productivity deal.

The workers estimated that the deal would have meant half the production workers being made, redundant within 18 months. It would also have destroyed the parity pay system.

The deal would mean an increase in production per worker of 63%. The workers are aware same action.

BS have also said that a further 2,500 jobs are at risk by March 1984. There is no doubt that the gloves are off and BS aren't pulling the punches. If the yards do not reaffirm their previous decision to take over the yards in the event of redundancies or a pay freeze, then management will walk all over us.

BS intends to decimate the workforce in order to get a full return to casual labour that will then create the right climate for privatisation, with yards going for a song.

Blame The Tories and their management are telling us that we should lose our jobs for their inability to secure future work. We have now got to put the blame fairly and squarely where it lies with the Tories and BS management.

They have proved incapable of running the industry. We have now got to show that we can. We either make the Tories redundant or they do it to us. The choice is simple.