Strike Against Short-time
Socialist Press1976 1976-08-25Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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400 T&GWU and AUEW members from one of Clarkson's Nuneaton machine tool factories remain on strike against continued short time working which since the New Year has cut the earnings of some piece-rate workers by over f20 a week.
Uncertainty as to the company's long term aims on the introduction of new automated machinery has added to the determination of the Clarksons workers to demand a proper works agreement be signed and arrangements made to compensate for loss of earnings.
Clarksons, which is part of the giant Thorn group, seems to have imposed the short time working in Nuneaton as a result of a secret decision to rearrange work schedules nationally and even internationally (the group has links in Japan, Germany and Brazil).
This is the only way workers can account for the company's sudden switch in the New Year from a period in which up to 10 hours a week regular overtime was being worked, to the introduction, with no agreement, of a 32-hour week.
Quite clearly there can be no security for Clarksons workers without full access to the hidden figures and information on which the management is operating.
Stewards must demand the employers open their books to a trade union committee elected for the purpose, and must call for the backing of other workers in the Thorn group to force the opening of the books of the group as a whole.
On this basis the demand for work-sharing on full pay must also be advanced to protect the living standards of those faced with shorttime working.
LE L Leyland workers