Officials rush to carry through Ryton differ- pay sell-out

Scan page 11

end CPSA Over 500 parents, children and trade unionists supported a lobby last week against Oxford County Council's plan to close all nursery classes.

(WELL YOU LOT REALLY DROPPED ME IN IT! CALL YOURSELVES)

INDEED! OLD JACK MUST BE TURNING IN HIS GRAVE! (REMEMBER? WE TOOK YOUR LINE AND SQUASHED ANY TALK far from unanimous on the shop stewards' committee (35-19) and at the mass meeting over one-third voted against.

. The mass meeting was stormy and many strikers were extremely bitter at the sell-out.

When the terms of the return work are examined it is easy see why.

£25 pay In addition to the 5½% offered before the strike began Ryton workers will get £5 a week for five weeks-a total of £25 in all for a 13-week strike which cost each striker £1,000!

The night shift has also been ended, with a consequent reduction in pay of £28 for those involved.

And this is not all. The £25 is dependent on "co-operation" with management demands for major concessions in "labour flexibility" while the plant restarts production.

TL- and an i ne senior stewards are quoted in the Coventry Evening Telegraph as recognising the difficulties of forcing their members to accept these conditions in the next weeks.

From the beginning of the strike management has insisted that any extra money would have to come in the form of a productivity deal.

NOINA

With 238 workers having left during the strike it is clear that the company will aim at maintaining existing levels of production while the workforce has been cut by 10%.

The seriousness with which the trade union bureaucracy saw the ending of the strike is shown by the appearance of TGWU Divisional Organiser Bill Lapworth and AUEW Divisional Organiser George Butler at the mass meeting.

Echoed Both urged acceptance of the sell-out deal. Lapworth echoed management threats of a plant closure and Butler stressed the impossibility of persuading management to change its mind.

Lapworth even went as far as saying that regardless of the result of the mass meeting, talks on productivity, pay structures and incentives would have to take niarp tan runk.

Their appearance at the meeting was their first throughout the dispute.

Throughout the strike the TGWU had done absolutely nothing to black the import of strikebreaking stocks of Alpine cars from Talbot's French plant.

The officials did nothing for this strike except help knife it, AT THE while the senior nothir g to fight sabote ge.

stewa ds did the o ficials' Picketing In the early stages of the strike it was Ryton workers who carried out successful pickets of some transport facilities within Britain.

But as the strike developed it was the Stoke plant which was more energetic in its attempts to close the ports and seek support from other workers.

Ryton senior stewards, who made sneering references to "plants which don't know how to picket" are left with egg on their faces as the strike at the Stoke plant continues.

As we go to press the Stoke shop stewards will be meeting on Monday to discuss placing a picket on the Ryton plant which in any event can only work for a few weeks without the engines from Stoke.

Ryton convenors have least declared their refusal use engines from France.

Crisis The major defeat at Ryton is further proof that the sharpening crisis of capitalism (which tERE COMES POOR OLD JIM-LOOKING THE WORSE FOR WEAR AND TEAR I HI JIM!

HAVE ADRINK!

OF ACTION AGAINST THE TORIES;BUT THE MEMBERS ARE SPOILING FOR ACTION.... forces management into an ever more intransigent stance against attempts by workers to defend their living standards) is daily exposing the inability of the existing leaders of the working class to win even the most minimal concessions.

Trapped inside their acceptance of the logic of capitalismthat profits are necessary before workers can increase their real income-they are forced to turn ever more sharply against the people they claim to represent.

A new leadership is needed in the working class-one which starts from the independent interests of the working class and can answer the threats of management with determined and energetic leadership and the programme of socialism.

The determination of the Ryton, strikers shown in the thirteen week strike and the high vote to reject management's contemptuous offer indicates the fertile ground in the working class for those who have the answers which workers need.

The Talbot strike is far from over if the Stoke leadership maintain their insistence on an improved offer before a recom. mendation to end the strike.

*Build support for the Talbot strikers!

*Black all Talbot imports!

DeTwo weeks ago seven CPSA members in Breckfield DHSS office, Liverpool, were suspended for carrying out a ban on work-sharing, part of CPSA action against the civil service cuts.

1,000 CPSA members in DHSS, Department of Employment and Customs and Excise went on strike for one day in response to the suspensions.

There were also half day walkouts in DHSS offices in Oxford, Warrington, Bargoed, Aberystwth and Rhondda West.

CPSA members in Breckfield and Kirkby DHSS and Kirkby unemployment benefit offices remain on strike.

Despite this strong response trom the membership the CPSA NEC have, so far, called no LEADERS? AS FOR YOU MOSS -VOTING FOR RESELECTION WE HAD TO OFFER THEM? WHAT HARM DID A FEW LEFT SOME KIND OF SHOW! RESOLUTIONS EVER DO?—

Scan page 12

SOCIALIST ST