Frantic bid for sell-oul -on low pay
Socialist Press1979 1979-03-28Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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The NUPE bureaucracy are now under intense pressure from the government to kill off what remains of the low pay campaign as quickly as possible.
The threat of an early general election makes it crucially important for Callaghan to end the struggle against wage restraint in the public sector.
It is now obvious that the NUPE leadership have been instructed to force through acceptance of 9% and a comparability deal amongst Health workers and ambulance driversthe two groups who voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer and continue fighting for the full claim of £69/35 hour week.
These pressures were apparent at a rally of London ambulance drivers heid in Friend's Meeting House on Friday evening, March 23.
Intensify action
Despite the fact that ambulance drivers voted by 7 to 1 to reject the 9%, and the rally was called to discuss ways. of intensifying the action, NUPE national officer Bob Jones spent almost an hour spilling out a series of ridiculous promises and downright lies about the virtues of the comparability scheme.
He stressed repeatedly that there was no chance whatsoever of winning a higher claim, that the comparability study would, take into account the special needs of ambulance drivers, and, most important, that tbere was no guarantee that a Tory government would honour any promises made by a Labour administration.
From this he declared that the package should be accepted as soon as possible, in order to increase Labour's electoral chances!
Jones' approach was obviously part of a planned move to steamroller through acceptance of the 9% within the next few days, possibly before the no confidence vote in the Commons on Wednesday 28 March.
The fact that the NUPE EC recommended rejection of the offer and the Health and ambulance sections followed their recommendation by voting to continue the action seemed to be completely ignored by Jones.
He announced that an emergency EC meeting was taking place the following morning, and indicated that a series of national council meetings during the week would be likely to reverse these decisions.
Failed miserably
If Jones was hoping to intimidate ambulance drivers into ending their action-which is obviously an embarrassment to the NUPE bureaucracy, then he failed miserably in his objective.
Speaker after speaker from the floor spoke against the 9% package, and argued that the only answer was to maintain and spread the action that was already taking place.
Speakers from the SE division, who brought a strong contingent of about 60 workers to the rally, stressed that if there would be no guarantee from a Tory government to honour the comparability study as Jones had stressed, then this was more reason to reject the offer and step up the action.
Other speakers asked Jones why it was that the EC had agreed to escalate the action following the vote for rejection, and then had spent all their time trying to get ambulance drivers back to normal Not answered Neither Jones nor the full-timers present could answer these questions.
The way forward for ambulance drivers is to begin a strong campaign for all-out, indefinite strike action for the full claim.
Their militancy and determination has put them once again at the centre of the fight against the treacherous betrayals of the public sector union leadership in the low pay campaign.