[The men are demanding payment of a f2…]

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The men are demanding payment of a f2 pay award which was at first agreed to by management and then withdrawn.

The Company withdrew the f2 after having initially paid it in February 1976, arguing that it had been subject to the acceptance by the workforce of a productivity deal involving "more flexibility" amongst steelworkers and a redeployment of labour in the yard.

REJECTED

The workers rejected this deal. Now the Company claim that they cannot pay the money since it would contravene the Social Contract.

The local leadership of the union involved (the Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers) bases its case on the assertion that the deal does not break the Social Contract - and that this is beside the point in any event, since the money had been paid once already, before it was withdrawn.

After months of negotiations on the issue had produced nothing the. strike began on January 4th, and by the following weekend the whole of the 4,000 workforce in the yard had been laid off.

Meanwhile, Вої lermakers General Secretary John Chalmers has intervened - not to back the strikers, but to urge them to return to work "to pave the way for peace talks"

Eric Ogden MP heading a lobby along with Confed leaders to seek Ministry of Defence contracts for the yard, has put in a similar reactionary call for a return "for the sake of the yard and their own future"

In the background to the whole dispute are two factors - continued state control of wages through the Social Contract which is now dramatically cutting workers living standards and increasing the pressure for wages - and the parlous state of British shipbuilaIng.

The industry has orders of only 250,000 tonnes, compared with situation world wide recession in situation of worldwide recession in shipbuilding.

The Cammel Laird workers, already among the lowest paid shipyard workers in the world, with basic rates for skilled workers of little over f50. a week, are faced with the brunt of management's drive for profitability through wage-cutting. drawing office - walked out when management issued redundancy notices to 25 of the office workforce.

Wage cuts alongside sackings: this is the real face of the Social Contract.

And Cammel Laird workers in resisting these attacks are in conflict with the Social Contract whether their leaders admit it or not.

CORRECTION

IN OUR LAST ISSUE WE stated that Tony Williamson, Chairman of the 5/60 T&GWU Branch in Oxford was in charge of bailiffs who evicted T&GWU strikers at the Linton Lodge hotel.

We now find that this was based on wrong information. We apologise for any misunderstanding this has created.

LEAGUE

Birmingham PUBLIC MEETING «Wage Control and Union Democracy"

Sunday 30th January at 7.30 Labour Club, Bristol Road.

FUND

WITH THE LATE ARRIVAL of some large donations, the December Fund finally edged its way over the f500 mark to close at a more encouraging £517.55.

Meanwhile, the January Fund now stands at f252 exactly. With twelve days to go to the end of the month, every effort must be made to raise the full £600 on time.

Donations shoud be sent to:

Socialist Press Monthly Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NWS 1HR

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bge PONS ednesday 19th January, 1977