Union leaders say 'yes' to bosses' plan... but STILL SAY NO

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Last Thursday, top union officials in the Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions called off the shipyard strike scheduled for January 6.

The strike was for a wage increase and a 35 hour week, in conflict with the bosses drastic 'survival plan', which will massacre the shipyards.

Repeatedly mass meetings and ballots had shown the workers' willingness to struggle. But the union leaders clearly wanted to avoid a fight.

Lol Duffy, GMBU steward at Cammell Lairds, Merseyside, spoke to Socialist What's the feeling in the yards about the strike being called off?

Most people thought that it was a fix, and that the [union] Shipbuilding Negotiating Committee had intended this all along.

During the three days of talks at [the government conciliation service] ACAS, they only met for about 1½ hours, then reached agreement.

There's a lot of anger in the yards. But shop stewards have not been calling mass meetings.

We should have had reportback meetings straight away. I bélieve we could have got the shop floor to reject the sell-out and call for the strike to go ahead.

If we had been consulted, we could be on strike now.

From what I've heard, lay delegates present at the talks weren't even consulted abot the trade union 'alternative' proposals or asked to vote on them. They were ignored throughout the meeting.

All along the line the union leaders didn't want action. They delayed and delayed until finally they could say that the circumstances had changed. They've just been stalling us.

Actually the union leaders are scared stiff of us. And they believe what British Shipbuilders say - all along the line. In fact they think exactly the same way as British Shipbuilders.

Is the agreement a complete sell-out?

They agreed to withdraw the strike notice, to resume talks about the British Shipbuilders survival plan, and to consider a trade union 'alternative' plan tabled on January 4. This alternative document is basically just as bad as the British Shipbuilders survival plan. Some people think it's even worse!

There is a meeting of the new working party' this Wednesday to discuss the phasing in of the survival plan. Really they shouldn't have anything to discuss - British Shipbuilders has turned down the trade union alternative, and mass meetings and ballot votes have rejected British Shipbuilders' plan.

But they'll probably try to ram through some of the plans before the end of the month. They'll try to play off yard against yard. Orders will be held back from yards resisting the survival plan.

It means destroying work conditions and union organisation, and 30,000 redundancies within a year.

But as far as I can see, there is no way that the plan will be implemented in every yard. There will be resistance. At Lairds, we will have a mass meeting next Monday.

What will you be pushing for at this mass meeting?

Total rejection of the deal. We want strike action to fight for the full claim. There