Reject Steel Sell Out

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Last Sunday's "Sunday Telegraph" has a large picture of Bill Sirs, General Secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation looking "weary" Weary no doubt from the task of selling his members down the river.

Last summer, after the proposals BSC, to carry through 20,000 redundancies, Sirs agreed to the compromise proposals involving speedup, waiving the guaranteed working week and 6,000 redundancies.

That was not enough. Now BSC plans 40,000 redundancies in a desperate attempt to break even, and halt its financial losses of £8m a week.

TWO WEEKS Management's new draft proposals which Sirs and the union leadership have two weeks to answer contain a battery of proposals designed with the sole purpose of making redundancies, speed-up and plant closure on a massive scale possible over the coming period.

Bob Scholey, the chief executive of BSC, stated clearly at the end of the latest round of negotiations:

"We have withdrawn nothing on the question of redundancies. Jobs are still going to have to go."

The bankrupt reply came from Sirs: "We accept that there will have to be a streamlining of the labour force." Saddled with this leadership steel workers can expect nothing but complete capitulation to management proposals.

SCRAPPED

The management document proposes to scrap the manning level agreements, end once and for all the guaranteed working week, end overtime and guaranteed shift working and to concentrate production in the most efficient plants, putting more plants on to standby operation.

In addition, if voluntary redundancies nave not resulted in an "acceptable" cut in the labour force within twelve weeks of the agreement, then management will start sackings.

AGREEMENTS

In the long run the proposal central to the attack on jobs is the scrapping of the manning level agreements. Management need this desperately to improve the competitiveness of BSC in the slumpridden world steel market.

During 1975 steel production slumped in all the major capitalist steel producing countries, in Germany by 22%, in France by 18% and in Britain by 10%. Over the period of the current world Slump as a whole, steel output has fallen by one third and prices by a half.

The major steel producers are now attempting to : inflict the burden of this crisis on steel workers throughout the world, by increasing productivity, to produce a smaller output more cheaply and outbid competitors. At the same time they clamour to their governThe next edition of Socialist •Press will be our first anniversary of publication.

To mark this occasion we will be producing a special ¡edition with additional articles ,and industrial news. trying to get other countries the brunt of the slump.

British Steel is not well placed to enter this melee of cut-throat competition. Japan's most efficient steel plants produce 520 tons per man year, West Germany's 370. British Steel's five most efficient plants produce 195 tons per man year and the overall output of the British Industry is 122 tons.

In the light of these figures the aim of industry becomes clear. Even with the closure of less efficient plants on a massive scale and a concentration of all production in the top five plants the competitiveness of the British industry would not be restored. Massive productivity increases involving speed-up and redundancies have to be pushed through in the most efficient plants as well.

Meanwhile Varley, Secretary for Industry, was putting it about that he would be prepared to press for retention of the guaranteed working week if the other management demands are conceded by the steel workers, In other words the guaranteed working week restored to the miniscule workforce that would be left after management's savage cuts.

The task facing steel workers is therefore clear. The strike action against 1 Ebbw V and the through and the Socialist Press

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