School meals campaign gathers strength

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School meals staff in Lancashire are fighting back against the Tory government attacks on their jobs and living standards.

Some school meals staff have supported the Lancashire School Meals Campaign almost from its inception, but now they are getting full support from their union.

North-East Lancs area organiser for NUPE, Neville Davis, is asking all branches of school meals staff in the area to send delegates, and give full support to the school meals campaign.

Whilst sectional interest is obviously one motive for this move by the official trade union movement, it is by no means the sole one.

Following the successful Lobby of County Hall, Preston, last month, the campaign organised a further meeting earlier this week. The active representation on the campaign committee reflects its growth in the two months since its formation.

Trades Council delegates, full and part-time .union officials, school meals staff, teachers, parents, local councilors and a nutritional expert are all represented on the committee.

The latest meeting reflected the non-sectional attitude of all members of the campaign. Although a fight against the the service remains the central issue, solidarity was expressed for all workers involved in struggles against attacks on jobs and living standards through expenditure cuts in the public sector.

School meals staff were particularly concerned about the adverse effects which the cuts in hours and staffing levels, as well as changes in menus, are having on the welfare of children.

Less staff and hours means less time to spend on cleaning and, therefore, lower standards of hygiene. Menu changes have resulted in a lowering of nutritional value of meals.

The meeting recognised that the erosion in the service represented a direct attack on lowincome families, with the partial withdrawal of free school meals and price increases.

Discrimination

Discrimination against children on free school meals, particularly in senior and upper schools, was reflected in the use of the white disc' system, segregation and restricted items on the menu.

This particularly obscene effect of council and government policy not only mirrors capitalist values but strikes at the basic rights and equality of youth and school children. The attacks on the school meals service are an attack on the rights of women and a conscious policy of the transference of funds from the public to private sector of the economy.

By making the school meal less attractive, more expensive, less accessible to low-income groups and by discouraging a transition to 'packed' lunches (through reduced supervision and the refusal to allow a glass of water with a packed meal), the Tory government is able to deal a double blow on the working class.

Hamburger Children are either asking to go home for lunch, which often means that women who work outside the home have to give up their job or make arrangements for someone else to provide a meal for their children. Or, children are encouarged to use the growing number of 'chip' and hamburger' vans which park outside school gates at lunch time.

With county and local authorities about to embark on the budget compilation for the next financial year, further attacks on the school meals service can be expected. There is a real danger that next year may see a widespread axeing of the school meals system throughout Britain, something that has already occurred in some areas.

The campaign meeting discussed future action of the group. An open letter to the Lancashire County Council is to appear in Preston Worker, the organ of the Preston Trades Council. i demanding amongst other things, the release of a suppressed nutritional report on the Lancashire school meal.

Cement links

Letters are being sent to all parent-teacher groups in the area in order to build further the existing support for the group and to cement links between struggles of school meals workers, teachers and parents.

Experience in struggle has shown the outcome of fighting attacks in isolation. The campaign has successfully defended the school meals service from one round of 'cuts' ', only to see the burden transferred to other areas of county expenditure by the council.

The campaign offers support to all groups fighting expenditure cuts and encourages the setting-up of campaigns throughout Lancashire. The Lancashire campaign now has a link with a group fighting cutbacks in the school meals service in Cheshire, The Cheshire Trade Union Action Committee.

The possibility of industrial action by NUPE was discussed at the campaign's last meeting. This again underlined the importance of building councils of action to broaden the struggles against cuts, with delegations trom the whole labour movement providing a base for supporting strike action in both the public and private sector.

In this way the basis Saturday 15 November 198 Assemble Church Stile, off Drake Street, 12 noon laid for the necessary mass action to defeat the Thatcher government and defeat attacks on the working-class.

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