Sheffield March Backs Hotel Strikers
Socialist Press1977 1977-02-16Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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300 workers marched through Sheffield on Saturday on a demonstration called by the Sheffield Trades Council in support of the 40 workers at the Grosvenor House Hotel who have been on strike for 10 weeks to win recognition.
The limited response to the demonstration was due mainly to the continued unwillingness of the local TGWU officials to mobilise any support for the strikers.
At a meeting after the demonstration, Bill Owen, TGWU District Secretary spoke about the rights of workers to join the trade union of their choice and said it was "unfortunate" that the contract of employment required 50% union membership before the union had the right to negotiate for all members.
The leader of the strike committee, Margareta Petrovic, spoke about the strength that had been achieved on the picket line and the need to strengthen it and extend the picket.
She said that the only way to win the strike was through national harking and that tha nninu affinnun She said that it was important that the strike was won because if it were defeated then there would never be a union in Trust Houses Forte.
There was a delegation of the Oxford Hotel strikers on the demonstration and one of the strikers from the Randolph spoke in support of the Grosvenor House workers.
He stressed the need for solidarity _between the two groups of strikers and the need for regional blacking of Trust Houses Forte in preparation for national blacking.
The clearest show of solidarity came after the demonstration when the union officials and labour leaders had gone home.
This was at a meeting called by the strike committee together with workers from Gardner Merchants, a subsidiary of THF.
At this meeting the strikers decided to extend their picket to firms with Gardner Merchants canteens.
The first one-day picket will be within the next two weeks and the Gardner Merchant workers have pledged not to cross the picket line.
They also stated that they would alrandy ntail.• Wednesday I6th February, 1477
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