Blame it on the atmosphere
Socialist Press1978 1978-05-19Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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combatting only one aspect of the strategy of the Toryrun council, which involves The CPSA conference carried a vote of censure on its officers for throwing a party costing f500 held at the TUC conference.
The defence agains this move by union president Leonard Lever gives some idea of the kind of world these bureaucrats have created for themselves from our subscriptions.
The CPSA delegation to the TUC was probably the only delegation that, because of a previous £500 party, had specifically had its spending power limited.
This, according the Lever, was an embarrassment in the atmosphere of the TUC.
So when union general secretary Kenneth Thomas was elected to the TUC General Council they defied union policy and held further £500 party, which meant free drinks, etc for any trade union official. Lever said:
"After the General Council election we found ourselves under a fair amount of pressure from other unions". "Where is the party to celebrate then?" "It is the custom of the TUC to give a party when you get somebody on the General 'Secret plan' The TUC Congress concerned was the same Congress that passed a resolution on Grunwicks that was supposed. •to contain a 'secret plan' to win, at the same time as specifically deciding not to cut off services.
The pressure to lay on free drinks is clearly far greater than any pressure for trade union action.