[THE TWO competitors left in the running to…]

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THE TWO competitors left in the running to take over Scott Lithgow (Trafalgar House and Howard Doris) suddenly announced last week that they planned a joint takeover, 75% Trafalgar House and 25% Howard Doris.

By the time this issue of Socialist Organiser appears, the deal to hive off the shipyards on the Lower Clyde may be signed, sealed and delivered.

The terms of the takeover are due to be finalised this week.

But what it will mean for the Scott Lithgow workers themselves is far from clear. Rumours of the planned size of the new workforce vary from 1,250 to over 2,000.

It is even unclear what the present size of the workforce is. Officially, it is 2,900 (compared with 5,400 a year ago), but other estimates put the figure at close to 2,000.

Trafalgar House and Howard Doris are demanding that the SINCE Friday, 2 March, 1,000 shopfloor workers at the Weir's Pumps factory in Glasgow have been on strike for an across-the-board wage increase of £15 a week.

Management's offer to the workforce, who are mostly AUEW members, was 5% plus continuation of the productivity deal which has been running in the factory for the past two years. Management has claimed that the productivity deal can bring in £600 a year for each worker.

Last year it brought in just £13.

The workers staged a 24 hour strike on Friday February 24 against the offer. But management struck firm, and on the Wednesday of the following week the workforce decided to strike indefinitely from Monday March whole affair be concluded by Friday March 16, or else the deal will fall through. This ultimatum Will be used to browbeat the workforce into accepting the deal, maybe including compulsory redundancies.

Howard Doris has also stressed that the new Scott Lithgow would not be involved in any negotiations with the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU). At present, the workforce is covered by national agreements between the CSEU and British Shipbuilders.

However weak the CSEU may be, the removal of the Scott Lithgow workforce from it, together with the end of the closed shop, will amount to a further weakening of trade union organisation at the yard.

But the public statements from shop stewards' convenor Duncan McNeil have been concerned only with the size of the workforce after privatisation. And the shop stewards' committee continues to play a spectator's role, as it has done throughout the last three months.

jumps The strike actually started on Friday 2nd because management withdrew all clock cards after workers refused to lift an embargo on goods entering or leaving the factory.

As one of the shop stewards pointed out when moving a resolution of support for the dispute at the local Labour Party (Cathcart CLP), the dispute promises to be a drawn-out one. Strike headquarters have been set up in a local scout hut, and a picketing rota organised from 7.30 am to 11.00 pm each day.

The picketing has stopped goods entering and leaving the factory, though nothing is being produced anyway. However, the clerical staff, who are members of AUEW-TASS, are continuing to work during the dispute, on the grounds that they are not covered by this pay claim .....

imports broke down after Brazil refused to accept a US offer of a quota at one quarter the level of its 1983 trade.

Although Brazil's exports to the US are only 5% of total US steel imports, the US is Brazil's largest steel market.

The ban will mean further calamities for Brazil's steel workers, who suffer much worse conditions than in the US.

While the US government thus squeezes Brazil's exports, simultaneously the IMF is demanding that Brazil runs a big excess of exports over imports to finance its debt repayments. The answer? Further drastic cuts in Brazil's imports, and industries shutting down for lack of raw materials and spare parts.

Roll on the recovery? 395 businesses went bust in February -13.2% more than in February 1983, which was already one of the highest monthly figures on record.

A second footnote to the recent item about Third World-based multinationals: this time, on 'multinationals' based in the Stalinist states.

The term is a bit misleading, because there is only one company which can really be described as a multinaitonal based in a Stalinist state. That is Tungsram, the Hungarian light bulb company.

Tungsram is now closing down its plant in Ireland, but still has factories in the US and Austria.

Apart from Tungsram, however, there are reckoned to be some 400 companies in advanced capitalist countries which are partly owned by the USSR or East European states.

The total amount of investment involved is estimated at $550 million, about two-thirds of it in 100%-owned or majorityowned concerns.

If the Stalinist states were capitalist, rather than based on nationalised industry, then of course they would have massively more multinationals. But these figures show that the bureaucrats relish a bit of capitalism on the