Jones & Co Stab Leyland Stewards

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As the seamen vote for action against the 42% pay policy, and with a wave of strikes escalating throughout British Leyland reflecting the strength of the working class beginning to break through the TUC bureaucrats' pay deal with the Labour government, the union officials have hit back at those fighting for principle on the shop floor.

Central to their moves was a meeting held on August 19th, convened in London by • Jack Jones of the T&GWU and Hugh Scanlon, AUEW President.

In attendance was Harry Urwin, Assistant General Secretary of the T&GWU and Ryder supremo, together with National, Regional and local officials of the two unions from areas covering Leyland plants.

Jones and Scanlon told the assembled bureaucrats that Alex Park, Financial Director of British Leyland, had outlined to them a very serious financial situation in Leyland, had complained to them of the number of disputes, and had pleaded that District Officials work more closely with local management in the Leyland plants.

Jones and Scanlon went on to say the main question was now getting the next £400 million backing from the government. They argued that it was vital to get this message across when industrial action was considered -however good the reason.

They went on to say that strikes were opening the door to foreign manuracturers. •and attacked the so-called "enemy" from within British Leyland.

This was tantamount to declaration | of war against militants in the Leyland plants on behalf of management. The impact in the factories was immediate.

That same day a meeting of 173 workers took place in the North works at the Cowley Assembly Plant to consider the case of a young. Asian worker sacked for allegedly not working hard enough.

RECOGNITION

A few days later on August 24th, Leyland management withdrew recognition from four shop stewards who, they claimed, had addressed the meeting. The local T&GWU official, David Buckle, Promptly agreed that management Buckle even refused to use the official procedure, simply sayıng it was "up to the members to decide" on the issue. The members immediately did decide, and stoppages took place on both the Maxi and Princess tracks where the stewards worked.

CONFIDENT

Next day, however, feeling confident he could swing a decision to end any action, Buckle called a mass meeting of the North Works. The meeting was enlarged to ensure that the sections with victimised stewards were put in a minority.

In spite of this, and after a 2½ hour battle against Buckle and right-wing convenor Reg Parsons, who both argued management's case, the meeting voted to support the stewards.

Although shaken by this, Buckle and Parsons recovered enough to close the meeting before any decision was taken on what form that support should take, thus layıng the basis for confusion to set in.

As a result, following the mass meeting the sector whose stewards had been victimised took strike action, while the other sections worked.

INTIMIDATION

This opened the door for management to move in with individual intimidation. Each militant was shadowed by two or more foremen who each noted down every word he spoke.

To add to the pressure, Parsons published a witch-hunting statement on the Tuesday which was taken up by the local and national press.

On the Thursday, however, an emergency meeting of the Joint Shop Stewards Committee unanimously backed the four stewards, and issued a statement in their defence to members.

Meanwhile, after a week of consciously created confusion, a crack in the strike came on the Cont'd on Back Pare. Col. 4. UNIO JACK TONES QUALIT /ED AGAIN JI GROWS The result of the ballot in the National Union of Seamen gave a 309 vote majority for "industrial action of some kind", whatever the executive think necessary. The polling was very high ed all over the world.

The seamen's claim clearly goes against the Social Contract's terms which say that no group of workers will have more than one rise within a year.

The executive of the NUS will decide on Wednesday what action to take. Already the leadership of the TUC and the capitalist press are saying they would be "isolated" if they took action.

But, as happened with the miners, if the seamen come out on strike they would bring to the surface all the hatred latent within the working class for the betrayals of this Labour Government and they would no doubt receive mass This would show just how flimsy is the hold of the 'Social Contract' on the working class as a whole. The whole effort of the TUC is "towards discouraging the NUS leadership from such action."

The seamen's vote has expres sed the real feelings of the working class in clear contradiction to the manoeuvrings of the bureaucracy at the TUC in Brighton.

The demand must now be on the executive for no piecemeal strikes but all out determined action. And there must be a campaign for full support from dockers and other i transport workers.

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with a 33% vote from a membership which is scatter-