'Maybe a general strike'

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artheid demonstrators marched through Cardiff on April 7th in response to the Welsh cision to play against an international side which included three South African players you might be less aroby.

STOP WELSH RUGBY UNION LINKS WITH APARTHEID SUU!: *ASTE AFRICA! not do SATURDAY 7th APRIL, 1984. more B25e0 setside the last Seents freer Paul Mattsson Over 700 Anti-A Rugby Union's ( at tatters Mak Casin das pirc.... chel he less CONVEN DoxSteve Shukla (Armthorpe NUM, Yorkshire) spoke to Dan Duncan and Dave Ayrton.

I haven't seen any of the national leadership yet, and the same goes for the area leadership. It isn't there. If it hadn't been for the militant action of rank and filers, thre would have been no picketing of the Notts coalfield, no picketing of power stations, no motorway protests.

Having said that, it's all to Scargill's credit that he has resisted calls for a ballot, because he must be under a lot of pressure from the right wing on the NC. He has had a very hostile press, and no doubt he's receiving all sorts of threats, but he's consistently argued against a national ballot.

Undoubtedly. lessons have been learnt. When the South Wales miners came up last time, they just appealed to officials and not the rank and file. If they had come to the rank and file it would have only taken one South Wales picket to bring out the whole Yorks coalfield.

I disagreed with the call for a ballot then. It is national conference policy to oppose pit closures and the national conference is the ruling body of our union. No threat to any pit should be passed by while they mess about with official procedures.

The call for a national ballot now is a strikebreaking effort. MacGregor's tactics are divide and rule. He's given the Notts miners the feeling that they're safe, so they keep working and think their future is secure.

We can't win this battle alone, but with the NUR and other transport unions we can be successful.

Action around power stations can be effective. It's sheer propaganda to say otherwise, because they just haven't got the capacity to stock such huge amounts of coal as they claim. Remember, a stockpile is useless if you can't move coal from the pile and they need the TGWU for that.

As the strike gains momenbusters NALGO members are in their fourth week of a strike to reinstate victimised colleague.

Siobhan Stokes was sacked on the spot on Friday March 16 for acting in line with NALGO policy and refusing to sign a "loyalty oath"

Siobhan, who looks after children in council care, was asked to change her place of work from Camberwell, South London, to Sidcup, 13 miles away.

Siobhan lives in Tufnell Park, North London. Moving her place of work would mean over four hours travelling to and from work each day.

Although her terms of employment ask her to be prepared to move, NALGO has an agreement with the Council that members can in fact refuse such moves.

But 22 minutes before her six month probationary period ended Siobhan was sacked - without notice of dismissal, without a disciplinary hearing, without pay in lieu of notice and without right of appeal.

She was called to the Social Services department head office and asked to sign a "loyalty oath" to the effect that she would observe the terms of her contract i.e. work when and where she was told, or loose her iob.

Siobhan was on probation she had no formal rights, not even an industrial tribunal or an appeal to counciliors.

NALGO asked management to consider moving Siobhan to a unit in Southwark. They refused.

Would they, NALGO asked, give her the weekend to think over matters? No.

NALGO's choice was to come out on official strike. The strike is solid and supported by the overwhelming majority of NALGO members.

Although management started the dispute, the role of Southwark's Labour council has been scandalous. They are condoning the decision to dismiss Siobhan, ad they are trying to break the NALGO was on strike for a whole week before councillors even agreed to start talking.