[OMirro Car chief A message from Think of…]
Socialist Press1981 1981-07-02Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 8 →
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OMirro Car chief A message from Think of •KEEPER potentind Hugh Scanlon people in - Jack Jones and wi:
nior Region 5 Secretary Brian Mathers was stung nto publishing a leaflet n reply to a damning iccount of his sell-out of he Ansells brewery trike given out at the 'onference.
The exposure, entitled 'The Strike Mathers Broke' was unsigned, and was emphațically disowned by the Ansells Branch Secretary.
But he jumpted to his feet to declare that Mathers 500-word reply was a complete distortion of the facts. • In any event Mathers was unable to offer any substantive reply to the statement that his intervention resulted in a "settlement" including:
"700 jobs lost. An ex gratia paymeni of £1,000 for the first two years of service and £100 a year thereafter. 300 jobs with approximately €50 wage cut, far worse working conditions, and, so far, no representation or agreement. • Re-engagement not reinstatement."
He 'offered no reply to daims that pickets had been. told not to operate outside Birmingham, or that TGWU drivers had been told by Mathers to cross picket lines in order to avoid the threat of legal action. He did not deny organising a secret ballot using company envelopes and the _ company's addressograph.
Evasive
Nor did he deny that the settlement had been concluded by himself and divisional officer Doug Fairbairn over the heads of the workforce, with no strikers' representatives involved in the talks.
Indeed his evasive reply simply confirms the truth of these charges.
But the TGWU is not responding to demands from angry strikers for an independent inquiry basea out- •L. nort side Region 5 to il estigate Mathers' handling of the dispute. warmth Suspicion Instead, Region 5 itself is to condúct an inquiry into the strike. Mathers' long record as a witch-hunter of militants within Region 5 must give grounds for suspicion that the main victims of this so-called inquiry will be his outspoken critics from the strike committee.
Militants concerned at the Ansells sell out and what appear the beginnings of a new cover-up and witchhunt in Region 5 should fight for resolutions protesting at the lack of any independent • inquiry into Mathers' conduct.