Didcot unionisation fight sold out
Socialist Press1979 1979-08-08Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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The picketing of Selected Toys Ltd. at Didcot was abandoned last Friday after five solid, weeks, as the management carried out the charade of closing the factory under the guise "voluntary liquidation".
The absence of any lead from TGWU District Official Phil Eynan in this unionisation fight spurred on the process of demoralisation that. began when that there is little weakening in the action which began with mass meeting management imposed on June 26.
Together with the branch secretary, Eynan had ensured that virtually no meetings were held, and that only a selected handful of strikers were kept "in the know"
Off his hands
It is no secret that he is now well pleased that this troublesome dispute is off his hands and that the task of unionising workers at similar firms in the Didcot area has been set back by this defeat.
But as soon as ST L employer Young attempts to start up production once more TGWU members must ensure that Eynan and the Reading District are forced to mount full-scale blacking of the plant and of the finished dartboards it produces.
The end of the struggle at STL was marked for some reason by a dance, which the local leadership had been more than willing to organise and Eynan readily agreed to attena.
Survival
The final song was appropriately "| Will Survive". The courageous strikers from STL will indeed survive so long as they remain ready to fight for their rights against reactionary employers and union misleaders.
The survival of types such as Eynan, however, rests on their ability to dupe, divide and betray the members they supposedly represent.
The task of the working class to ensure that this survival is short as possible.