Conference Tass
Socialist Press1976 1976-05-19Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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Jenkins First-han from key conferences.
NEC Apologist Williams INACTIVE "WRECKERS"
The annual conference of AUEW (TASS) meeting in Bournemouth overwhelmingly rejected any incomes policy under capitalism, reaffirming the decision of the AUEW National Conference last year.
That NC decision by rule is binding on all four sections and all officials of the amalgamated unions.
But this "technicality" did not prevent Hugh Scanlon once again ignoring union policy and voting for the new wage-cutting deal between the TUC and the Government at the General Council.
Reg Birch and TASS General Secretary Ken Gill voted against the deal, but the last year's events show clearly that such opposition unlikely to be more than a token show.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party, TASS has now adopted a so-called "flexible wages policy" which in effect means there is no national strategy over wages, and small groups of members are left to look after themselves as best they can.
DECLINE
As real wage levels of TASS members continue to decline steadily, so the leadership must hope that TASS members stomachs have the same "flexibility" as their wages policy.
An EC spokesman poured scorn on a motion calling for a national campaign to achieve settlement with a sliding scale of wages to keep pace with inflation.
He said it would be "difficult" to get the employers to agree to it.
Presumably wage claims are now to be dictated by the employers deciding what they will agree?
This shows clearly that the EC