New Backing for Bakers' Pay Fight

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TOT ATSOPA 19.. NITY Tives Newsens Hussy Goes, 0 DAMNED NATSOPA workers march against the closure As TGWU and GMWU leaders gave the long awaited instruction to their members not to cross bakers! picket lines, the five woek Bakers Union strike seems poised on the verge of total victory.

But the TGWU has stopped short of fullscale blacking of four and grain supplies-which has not been requested by Bakers Union loaders.

About 20 indopendent com. panios and the Co-op have already broken ranks and settled with the union which has stood our for a f10, 26% pay increase.

Only the : two giant bread monopolies, Rank •Hovis McDougall and Allied Bakeries, now stand firmly against these pay demands-offering a miserable 11% deal which includes vicious productivity strings that would mean whole. sade speed-up and job loss.

Provincial journalists all over the country responded in large numbers to the first all out national official The continued supplies of bread in the shops is being used as a propaganda weapon against the strike but is no real consolation to employers, who have seen their usual 70% market share cut to 40% by the effects of the strike, as management scabs-many of them in ASTMS and other unions-sweat to maintain 50% production.

Hit monopolies Bakers Union president Terry O'Neill painted out last week that the union was quite happy for independent bakeries to increase their output to meet demand during the strike-since this hits the two main monopolies without hitting the house. wife.

But the TGWU and GMWU decisions to support the strike must now be built upon to tighten the noose around those RHM and Allied Bakeries plants which are still producing. bread.

Continuing violence outside the call at PA immediately began picketing their scab colleagues.

Journalists from all over the country were expected to join bakeries as police and scabs attack picket lines shows that the employers are increasingly desperate and that victory is still not yet assured.

Strike committees

In many areas strikers have established a high level of organisation-while in some towns, such as Oxford, serious picketing is only just beginning, and exclusive reliance has been placed on information and policies sent out by full time union officials.

It is essential that strike committees be elected in each bakery to ensure a continuity of picketing, so that the official support from other unions can be maximised, and the bread monopolies forced to concede.

Such committees, by putting the control of the struggle into the hands of the workers them-. selves strengthen the strike and act to guard against any possible retreat on the wage demands or productivity sell outs by the union leaders.

The prospect of a pay strike by tanker drivers in four of the five major oil monopolies grew last week when Shell and Esso drivers' stewards voted to recommend a stoppage from 2 January if the present 5% pay offer is not improved.

The recommendation will be put to drivers in a ballot, and conferences of stewards from BP and Texaco will be held this week.

The drivers' claim includes an increase in basic pay from £75 to £90 But the tanker drivers must beware of TGWU national secretary Ashwell who last year ensured that they were held back from action on their claim until after the firemen's strike had ended.

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