Vauxhall defeat
Socialist Press1979 1979-11-07Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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3,000 TGWU members from Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant voted last week to end their 8-week strike for a 25% pay claim, and accept the company's 17% offer.
This effective admission of defeat comes at the end of a tenacious struggle in which employers have used court injunctions and police violence to smash picket lines on docks and Vauxhall showrooms.
This dress rehearsal for the imposition of Tory anti-union legislation has been carried out with the tacit endorsement of TGWU officials who left the strike isolated, and of right wing convenors at the Luton and Dunstable plants who mounted no fight against Vauxhalls 17% with strings offer.
Workers will pay a heavy price for these betrayals.
On return to work, Ellesmere Port workers, like their brothers and sisters at Talbot plants in Coventry, are certain to face a new savage offensive on manning leveis and working conditions.
Orhall AT THE KKA?!