'Low pay' delay
Socialist Press1978 1978-11-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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In a series of statements over the past week, the NUPE leadership have made increasingly clear their intention of selling out the fight in the public sector around the claim for a £60 minimum wage and a 35 hour week.
Their latest tactic has been to prolong negotiations' in the manual workers sections-whose settlement date of 4 November has already passed-and they are also hinting at the impossibility of calling out workers before Christmas.
Also last Christmas Fisher was quite happy to sit back and watch the Firemen fight alone against Phase III when he-more than any other union bosswas in a position to end their isolation increase their victory.
Willing to Fisher and the public sector union : leadership must not be allowed to repeat the betrayals of last year. Public sector workers have already shown by countless resolutions passed through union branches that they are willing to take strike action in support of the claim-without any mention of waiting until after Christmas.
The leadership must now be forced to give a clear call for such action, rather than blaming their own spinelessness on the 'weakness' of the membership.
A conference has been called in London on 9 December, sponsored by NUPE branches at Westminster Hospital and and gre chances Hammersmith hospital.
The conference will be open to delegates from all union branches affected by the claim-although only branch officers and lay officials will have voting rights-and could play an important part in coordinating the fight and demanding that the leadership give a clear lead.
Not so serious This conference should be supported as a serious attempt to coordinate action around the low pay claim.
Not so serious, however, is the Campaign for Action in NUPE (CAN), which is influenced by the SWP and the IMG and seems to be suffering from all the political shortcomings of these groups.
The extent of CAN's programme so far seems to be to organise demonstrations on low pay and to print 'Low Pay' badges and even 'Low Pay' T shirts in the vain hope that this will be sufficient to defeat the 5% pay policy and the Callaghan government. CAN's campaign so far seems to be indistinguishable from the official NUPE campaign NUPE leader Fisher