Hull strikers keep Sandersons strike finally sold out

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Confrontation on Sandersons mass picket the country's most powertul otticials and instead toured union, secure in the knowledge meetings and rallies accusing that left-talking Todd had rank and file trade unionistsneither the will nor the political few of whom had ever been capacity to take the steps neces- called upon by their leaders to sary to crush him into submis- act-of "apathy"

The TGWU bureaucracy has finally succeeded in winding up its longest-running and most embarassing union recognition disputeat the Sanderson's fork-lift truck firm in Skegness.

For 28 months the Sandersons strikers were denied any serious support from the 2 million strong TGWU in their battle against a vicious anti-union employer in an area where large sections of workers remain unorganised.

They were left to struggle on a pathetic £6 per week strike pay: union i blacking of Sanderson's supplies was partial and ineffective: and a 'mass picket' finally called by the TGWU last October saw a mobilisation of only four people from Hull docks, the nearest mass body of TGWU membership, while a total of 200 workers travelled long distances to support the struggle.

Gullibility

I act Decemher official tage of the strike reached a new peak when Roy Sanderson exploited the gullibility of the TGWU's new national organiser Ron Todd to manoeuvre a vital lifting of blacking action that had threatened to exclude his forklifts from a crucial trade exhibition-before reaffirming the firm's refusal to reinstate the strikers or recognise the union.

From that point on Sanderson simply raised two fingers to ül l sion.

Todd had proved his credentials during the Grunwick strike (in which, as London Regional Secretary, he had personally instructed TGWU members not to support the vital August mace nirket) and in the LIV marathon recognition struggle at Garners Steak Houses, where he persistentiy rejected strikers' demands for full-scale blacking, official mass picketing of the restaurants and a regional levy to raise strike pay above the f6 per week level.

At Sanderson's, Todd refused to call a further mass picket.

But strike leader Phil Gilliat refused to pin the blame for the strike's isolation on union When in June the Garners strike was eventually forced to a close it became more crucial than ever that Gilliat break from this position and direct at the criminal inaction of Todd and the union bureaucracy in the Sandersons strike.

But in June, chairing the SWP's Manchester Rank and File Conference he presented a cynical and despairing speech which virtually exhonerated union officials altogether.

The fault, he. insisted, lies "in ourselves", for "our own failure to fill the gap left by the union officials."

Yet on every occasion that an appeal had gone out to workers for support-blacking, finance and the mass picketsupport had been willingly given.

It was Todd and his fellow TGWU officials that sabotaged this support and created conditions for defeat: and it has RATES:

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Address Hill, London NWS 1HR. been and Gilliat who, time again, the covered up for officials.

Ten days ago, therefore, the 15 remaining strikers met and considered the situation of dwindling finances, ineffective blacking and growing demoralisation.

It was scarcely surprising under these conditions that they voted to end the strike after nearly 2½ years of betrayals.

Roy Sanderson thus joins Garners boss Margolis, Grunwick's George Ward and Trust Houses Forte management on the growing list of employers well served by the treacherous TGWU bureaucracy in their stand against unionisation.

Workers fighting to defend and improve wages and working conditions must draw the bitter lessons from these experiences: a new, principled leadership, one prepared to mobilise the colossal strength of the trade union movement against the employers, is essential.

The WSL is. fighting build such a leadership.

Todd £1.75 . £6.00 £11.00 £6.50 £8.00 ub/six months/one year lose. all members of ACTSSwalked out after management refused to implement the closed shop agreement.

The strikers put a picket on the gates of the factory and the yards and brought the plant to a standstill.

They received full support from •the shopfloor with members of the TGWU the computer room.

There is no doubt that Hollis management were testing the workforce in a bid to break the closed shop.

Other such confrontations will undoubtedly be on the way if the Tories press through their anti• union laws this winter.

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