Ambulance pay vote

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Ambulance drivers throughout the country are now voting on whether to accept a derisory 13% pay At" this stage it is difficult to predict which way the voting will go, but whatever the outcome, there is a growing feeling of bitterness amongst ambulance workers at the bureaucratic way in which the package has been presented to them by their own union negotiators.

Following the enormous wave of low pay strikes last winter, with ambulance drivers in the forefront of the action, public sector union leaders effectively blocked the formulation of a wage claim for this year at the respective annual conferences. -Because of their militancy UNION and industrial strength last winter, ambulance drivers received a relatively high award from the Clegg commissionaround 23% in two stages.

But the whole value of the settlement has been lost against inflation. Ambulance drivers, along with all other public sector groups, are back where they were in 1978-low paid.

The offer itself is a complete fraud.

Evenly split

The 13% is based not on the whole of the comparability award, but only on the first half. In London, £2.30 is deducted from the current basic for the 13% calculation.

These two deductions mean that the 13% is actually nearer 10%.

To add insult to injury, the package contains an increase in annual leave entitlement, but to pay for this ambulance workers forfeit 66p a week long service launch in July). supplement-which means they actually suffer a net loss in earnings to pay for the proposed holiday increase!

• Not satisfied with negotiating such a poor deal in isolation from the membership, the bureaucrats are doing their best to ensure it • is accepted ..by instructing : branches to decide by secret ballot on a simple accept or reject basis.

The results so far seem to be fairly evenly split, at least in the London area. But Camden Ambulance NUPE Branch, one of the largest stations in the country, have overwhelmingly rejected the offer, with only six sales crisis. votes in favour of accepting. What it › HOW WAS THE MASS MEETING, O'FISHALL?

INFILTRATORS -ALL OF THEM!

WHAT ?ALL OF THEM?);

...NOW THESE CONFOUNDED STEEL CRAFTSMEN HAVE BEEN INCITED TO VOTE DOWN THEIR OFFICIALS TO STAY ON STRIKE! production in BL soon-and if to shutdown Edwardes may as well stage it at a tactically advantageous *Management need to close the tracks at some stage soon in order to carry out engineering and lay-out changes, connected with the facelift Marina (due for They also have to clear the track currently occupied bÿ the Maxi in order to retool for the Honda Bounty, production of which they now hope to brir forward to next year.

In addition Castle Bromwica convenors have now cleared the transfer of the Rover body to the Cowley Body Plant-following their complete acceptance of the closure of the Castle Bromwich Body Plant.

This work will be integrated onto the Maxi/Princess build line during the lay-offs.

This does not of course mean that BL does not have a is that YES! TAKE THAT LABOUR NEC FOR A STARTAND THAT WELSH T.U.C. MOB...

GENERAL STRIKE INDEED!.

US OFFICIALS!!!

BUT SURELY SOME OFFICIALS ARE FIGHTING THE TORIES?

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SOCIALIST PRESS Mugabe at mass rally on his return to Zimbabwe Socialist Press has argued that next week's elections in Zimbabwe are nothing more than a trap.

ZANU(PF) leader Mugabe and ZAPU's Joshua Nkoma have led their followers into this trap, which threatens to shut not on these traitors but on the people they have betrayed.

In the last week the imperial. ist offensive against Mugabe's ZANU(PF) has been deepened.

Governor Soames has declared his readiness to disenleading candidates Enos Knala has already been prevented from holding office even if he wins the election; ZANU(PF) meetings in the Chindzi area have been banned; there have been several attempts on Mugabe's life; and leading supporters of his have been killed.:

The campaign against ZANU(PF) rests on the claim by imperialist Governor Soames that this organisation has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of ceasefire violations which have occurred since full of allegations of "intimid: ation" by ZANU(PF) of supporters of other parties and claims that the guerrillas who have stayed in the bush are there on the orders of Mugabe himself.

It was particularly embarassing for the authorities, therefore, when it was announced that two bombers who were killed when their car exploded last week were in fact members of the security forces, and the bomb which killed themmarked with pro-Mugabe slogans-was their own!

They were killed in front of Rhodesian soldier WE2ALS Muzorewa the assembly camps and refusing to come back are not surprising.

There is major disquiet m the ranks of ZANU (PF) over the ceasefire decision.

It is the weakness of Mugabe in the face of this opposition which makes him a less than useful option for imperialism as

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shall AT THE

ALL A PLOT AGAINST ) O IT'S