Occupy the

Scan page 5

60,000 WORKERS employed by British Shipbuilders are due to start an all-out national strike at clocking-off time on Friday January 6.

The strike has been called by the Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee (SNC), with the support of the executive committee of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. The union leaders did not want the strike, but they were pushed into it by the pressure from the yards to reject British Shipbuilders' 'survival plan'.

The plan includes 9000 redundancies, drastic changes in work practices, and the closure or privatisation of some yards.

The SNC had originally called for workers to accept a £7 increase linked to the 'survival plan'. '. This £7 would not be part of the basic pay, but instead paid separately - and taken back if the yards did not come up to the bosses' own local 'survival plans' There has been massive support for the call for strike action, as individual unions have voted by ballots or mass meetings. In fact, the militancy has been there in the yards throughout the year, but the union leaders have done everything they could to avoid mobilising.

Even now, with the strongest mandate they have ever had from the yards, they are pleading with the employers through the government conciliation service ACAS to come up with some sort of compromise.

They know quite well that any such "compromise' would come nowhere near our original claim for a substantial wage rise, a 35 hour week and lønger holidays.

Contempt

So far management have treated the union Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee with total contempt. In a letter on December 22, Alex Ferry on behalf of SNC asked British Shipbuilders 'to return to the negotiating table with more realistic proposals between now and January 6 1984..

request for further talks, but the terms of your message make this impossible in two respects.

'One, any meeting held would be for the purpose of further clarification of the proposals which we have discussed with you at length. No movement of significance in the terms of the document could be considered, in view of the essential nature of its contents for the survival of the industry.

Two, British Shipbuilders could not enter talks without the Two pamphlets summing up the ideas of Socialist Organiser.

Stand' - 20p plus 15p postage. "How to fight the Tories' - 10p plus 15p postage.

Or the two together, 45p including postage. From Socialist Organiser, 28, Middle Lane, London N8.

shop steward, Cammell Lairds shipyard threat of a general strike being first removed, and the continuation of normal working being indicated.

'It is particularly disappointing to hear you say that British shipbuilders' current proposals have been overwhelmingly rejected and will not be introduced in the industry. As we understand it, the Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee has refused to allow employees even to discuss these proposals. The strike threat has already affected customers and damaged work prospects. A strike will be even more harmful.

'Since the SNC initiated the strike call, it is clear where the responsibility for the damage lies'.

The lay delegates on the SNC have been called down to London for a meeting at 3pm on Wednesday January 4 before the talks at ACAS have even shown any real response from the employers. But there will be a lot of pressure on the delegates to reject any deal in line with the 'survival plan' The threatened closure of Scott Lithgow on the Clyde Cammell Lairds General Section)

Jimmy McCarthy IN THE ballot conducted just before Christmas, my members voted two to one in favour of any action needed to support our justified wages, salaries and conditions claim:

It should not be forgotten that since nationalisation in 1977 30,000 jobs have been lost from our industry, and the flexibility and mobility of workers within British Shipbuilders has greatly increased.

I cannot forget the shame I felt when we allowed our members of 65 and over to be tossed on the stones with a pitiful 1450 ot less, and given the address of the local DHSS office. Some of these people had given a lifetime to the industry and the movement, just to be cast aside.

We have given all there is to give. There is no fat left to trim.

People say there is no work for the yards, but if the government put pressure on British shipowners to build and repair more UK ships in UK yards we would not be in the present situation. The government could ORGANISER ocialist the ORGANISER for right racialist convenors JIM and TIM COX makes it more likely strike will go ahead.

Management and the union leaders - especially the union leaders! - are grasping at straws, hoping that we will back down. There will be an attempt to divide the yards by rewarding some with orders and starving others, and by trying to get yard-by-yard deals going. But it will be hard to split us, because the attack on working practices means an attack on jobs in every yard, even those few with sizeable order books.

If the strike goes ahead, then the lead of the Tyne in deciding to occupy the yards and set up occupation committees has to be followed by all the yards. Once we are out, BS will close the yards they don't want and start selling off the equipment.

If we stay in to occupy, then we can focus attention on the yards, and base our campaigning action in the yards, using the facilities we supposedly own to spread our fight for the right to work, decent pay and living conditions.

About 64% of shipyard workers claim some form of supplementary benefit - so much for the myth of high wages in the yards!

Once the fight starts, it will have to be fought to win - not to compromise.

IY McCARTHY (GMBATU (UCATT) spoke to Socialist also provide better credit facilities to UK shipowners, similar to our competitors in foreign yards.

The maritime policy that would have been introduced by a Labour government, to take control over shipping, ports and shipbuilding and repair, should now be implemented by the TUC. We have the resources to carry it out.

One thing is obvious. we cannot win on our own. We have to take the fight out into the broad labour movement and demand their support. With such support

----- pull-quotes -----

BS replied that they were 'natur- ally willing to meet the SNC's

How to fight the lories The2op we stand Labour Socialist