Print union bureaucrats expel strikers

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Last week's arrogant statement by Garners Steak House boss Margolis that he will have 'no talks. with the union negotiators' marks a surprising turn in the nine-month strike.

Those closest to the dispute had concluded that Margolis was close to bankruptcy and almost on the point of surrender to the strike committee's demands of full recognition and full. reinstatement.

TGWU Regional Committee members last week also confirmed that Margolis had made As the strike at the Usher Walker printing inks factory moved into its fourth week the NATSOPA union bureaucracy have attempted to smash the strike by expelling every temporary card member in the chapel.

This vicious action is a clear indication that the NATSOPA bureaucrats are not prepared to let their members defend even the most basic democratic rights.

They are scared that even the smallest fight by their members will erupt into a full scale battle by powerful sections of the working class such as Fleet Street workers to defend jobs and conditions.

Sackings

The strike against Victorian-style employers of Usher-Walker began on 10 October.

The previous day, at a joint Usher Walker NATSOPA meeting, the company said that they intended to make between 15 and 20 men of their own choosing redundant and compulsorily retire seven men.

This is on a site which even management had admitted the previous week was six men undermanned!

Union bureaucrat Dave Hutchinson also agreed (at a private meeting with management) that his members should lose money owed to them from an earlier dispute.

The members of the Chapel decided that the only way to react to this threat to sack their militant chapel leadership was to take indefinite strike action.

Hutchinson, full-time branch secretary, said that this broke rule 32 of the Society's rules and since that time has consistently tried to defeat the strike.

In collusion with various other scab bureaucrats he has gone to the lengths of issuing NATSOPA membership cards to members of the United Road Transport Union (a scab union) in order for strike-breaking supplies of news ink to be delivered to Fleet Street.

More recently he has ordered the ending of any assistance to the Usher Walker strike by fellow NATSOPA members in Fleet Street, with the threat of disciplinary action if they do not.

Disciplinary threat

Other bureaucrats, determined not to be outdone in attempting to smash the strike, have threatened workers at the firm's sisterfactory with disciplinary action if they refuse to do work stopped by the strike.

Even after all of this scabbing the bureaucracy was still not satisfied and threatened that the entire chapel could be expelled.

Last week they summoned the strikers to a special branch meeting to discuss not how the strike could be won, but why they had broken rule 32 (i.e. gone on unofficial strike).

The chapel decided that they would be unable to attend as some members were picketing the firm's plant in Manchester and some had not been notified.

With no one attending the meeting the bureaucracy felt strong enough to expel a large percentage of the strikers from NATSOPA.

Using the excuse of nonattendance as a reason for the expulsions, the bureaucracy have made their most determined effort to date to smash the strike.

Picketing

Nevertheless the strike remains strong. i Despite being small in numbers (less than 100) the workers have kept picketing Fleet Street and pickets have been sent to the sister-factory in Manchester to ensure that London work is not done.

Other NATSOPA militants have supported the strike in a number of ways. Last week a chapel at the Financial Times sent a motion to NATSOPA House demanding that the strike be made official.

Members of other unions have also shown support. A tanker carrying 90 tons of Usher Walker ink has been blacked by the TGWU and will remain idle until the dispute is settled.

Petrified

The bureaucrats of NATSOPA are petrified of the Usher Walker strike and the way its victory would encourage their membership to struggle. Other members of NATSOPA must tell the bureaucracy that they are not prepared to let them get away with their treachery fo all supplies Usher Walker!

Black scab news ink!

Demand that the strike ne = ate official!

readmission Kick our the union scats and parasites-build a revolutionary leadership in NATSOPA!

Financial contributions and messages of support should be sent to: Jimmy Burton FoC, Usher Walker Strike Committee, clo NELP Students Union, Livingstone House, Livingstone Road, London EIS.

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