Shipyards Dirty Deal

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GENERAL STRIKE! TORIES Cul joint intervention organised by the Leyland Action Committee, BL and BSC workers are not the only state sector industrial workers to suffer at the hands of their union leaders.

76,000 shipyard workers have just had a 12.5%-withstrings pay deal signed and sealed by full time officials completely over their heads.

The deal involves acceptance of 3,000 more redundancies, flexibility of labour and other measures to increase exploitaand most of them for only two weeks. tion and attack working conditions.

Only days earlier a GMWU delegate conference had voted to reject an almost identical deal, and it was also thrown out at a 1,100-strong mass meeting at Sunderland Shipbuilders.

But with only marginal alterations the deal was concluded and signed by Boilermakers union leader John Chalmers win mne marrogane satement THALEN VAAM MHAM OMARM CARM that:

kint "here is no going back workers. time they decided that:

*Wel are of the opinion now, the deal has been signed".

A post-mortem will be held for delegates from all shipbuilding unions on March 24. But Confed President Ken Baker adamantly defends the decision to sign:

"It had to be signed. Any delay and £12.5 million would have been lost from the package"

Achin builders out alongside the steelbeen on strike for 11 weeks against the same two-pronged Tory onslaught.

They now face an additional pressure: Tory propaganda based on the outcome of the recent management ballot, in which 44% of the striking workforce voted in line with BSC's recommendation for a 'yes" vote.

Tenacity

After 10 weeks without strike pay in an isolated and uphill struggle, the fact that the 'yes' vote in a postal ballot is so low is a resounding statement of the But the media can be relied upon to exploit douots and GOT THE VOTE CALL SURREN +

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And, of course, rejection have brought ship-