Ford workers' 3-way fight

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Workers at Fords principal plants-Dagenham, Halewood and Swansea-have all voted heavily for rejection of the company's miserable 9.5% pay offer.

But as in the recent BL pay fight they may find that the biggest hurdle to strike action is still in front of them.

Firstly, the negotiators have been deliberately seeking a vote simply on the offer and not on the question of a strike.

This leaves them maximum room for manoeuvre once the vote has gone for rejection.

Secondly, Terry Duffy is only one of the union leaders involved who has attempted to head further negotiations away from the issue of wages onto the question of hours.

The wage offer, he has said, is satisfactory, since Fords have already offered more than BL: workers are voting not for more money but for shorter hours.

Duffy and others plainly hope to squeeze a small concession from Fords-possibly the offer of a one-hour reduction in the working week next year, in line with the Confed national settlement-in order to present a "victory" to the members and conclude a squalid deal on pay.

Union negotiators have already offered to trade concessions on productivity and moves to crush unofficial strikes in exchange for discussions on shorter hours and pensions.

In other words. they are offering to sell the jobs and conditions of their members for a few extra odds and ends to disguise their own refusal to fight for a claim to match the 16% rise in the cost of living.

While the bureaucrats wheel and deal, the refusal of Ford shop floor workers to brook any attacks on their conditions has been underlined by last week's struggles at Halewood which flow from the firm's new disciplinary code.

Ford workers face a fight on all fronts: against a government snatching pay from their wage packets while prices rip; against • management determined to screw more effort from them to increase Fords profits; and against union leaders more sympathetic to the plight of the company than the plight of their members.