[NEWES the fifth week of official strike action…]
Socialist Press1978 1978-07-05Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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NEWES the fifth week of official strike action.
They are demanding inclusion in a productivity bonus scheme from which they have been excluded despite repeated claims dating back to 1974.
The dispute presents the GLC management with a complex problem. The operators …are all NALGO members, but the GLC Whitley Council is controlled by the GLC Staff Association, a typical example of a management-dominated 'house union' Intense rivalry between NALGO and the GLCSA has led to the position where the GLCSA systematically blocks claims from NALGO members.
The function of a house union is to police the workers on behalf of management.
It is increasingly clear that the GLCSA is unable to perform this function at County Hall, where the Tory administration's cuts policy is generating a more militant atmosphere.
If management refuses to agree the telephonists' claim they will expose the role of the GLCSA as a police body.
On the other hand, if they recognise the claim they will expose the GLCSA as unable to win benefits for its members, provoking a turn to NALGO in either case.
GLC management has grown used to the position that NALGO presents the left face of GLC workers, and has no faith in the NALGO bureaucracy and its ability to hold back the membership.
In an attempt to sell out their abilities to GLC management as a more effective police force, NALGO district officials are attempting to persuade the telephonists back to work.
After four weeks of struggle the telephonists are determined not to go back without guarantees of money this year
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operators hold the line Twelve telephone oper- ators at the GLC are now in