Tories move to off docks hive

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A major confrontation with dockworkers at Southampton and the other 18 ports controlled by the British Transport Docks Board [£16.6 million profit in 1979] seems inevitable if the Tories press ahead with their plans to denationalise the most profitable sections by handing them over to private shipping companies.

At present. the plan (the Bill introducing private capital is scheduled for Parliament. in July) contains provision for the government to sell up to 49% of its holdings in the BTD Board which means that the port of S›uthampton [£7 million profit in 1979] would certainly revert to being owned and controlled by private shipping lines.

. Already the TGWU and NUR bureaucracies have been forced to (verbally) declare their intention to fight these far-"reaching• proposals, with , regional secretary' J. Ashman (IGWU) warning of "catastrophe for labour relations"

He hinted at industrial UNION DUES action in defence of this nationalised industry-while Labour MP Robert Mitchell, in condemning the move as a retrograde step, revealed that • • • We have spent years developing the present set of industrial relations"

It is of course precisely this same union-management collaboration that has supervised jobslashing, wage-cutting deals throughout BTD, and transformed Southampton Docks into a haven of strike-free profiteering drawing down the vultures of private capital.

Militancy

The greatest obstacle to these plans however will be the workforce themselves.

With 72 hours of strikes plus the TUC May 14 stoppage only recently concluded, workers have given notice that they will seek to defend their jobs against rampant Tory attacks.

The newly emerging militancy of the 2000-strong workforce these strikes were the first for 18 months threatens to demolish any pretence to "special labour relations.

This momentum must AT THE ANHE Tole kept up with demands on TGWU leaders to develop strike action in every section of British Transport Docks with supporting • action from the NUR against the Tory plans.

250 workers at Vosper Thornycroft's Shipyard in Woolston, Southampton are on unofficial strike.

They walked out on Thursday 22 May when engineering workers refused to implement flexibility' agreements.

This is the first walkout concerning the far-reaching Confed. deal imposed without consultation of the workforce.

Production is at a standstill at AC -Delco (General Motors) in Southampton Western Docks. Over 900 workers are laid off due to a pay dispute involving storemen. The factory is one of the biggest engine filter producers in Europe.

HA HА!.. SEE OUR MEMBERS THATLL T GOT STUCK INTO THATCHER! HOUND F ON HIS I ERS PELT AD - AFTER ALL, OUR MAY 14TH SPEECHES WEREN'T ALL BULLSHI ; WERE THEY?..

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