CAV offer thrown out

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March by direct workers against redundancies in the £55 minimum Over 1,000 GLC workers demonstrated last Tuesday against the cuts in the workforce announced by the Tory Since the Tories took office their first attacks have fallen architects and the direct (housebuilding) force. the Tories A month ago announced their first cuts-1300 jobs are to go by the end of March.

A mass meeting of NALGO decided to proceed with the strike ballot which the constitution requires.

The GLC Staft Association, a large white collar house union under reactionary leadership (which includes a prominent Labour Party leader of Greenwich Council) decided to call only a "silent lobby" of the next GLC meeting-18 October.

STAGE SET

NALGO, whose leaders are engaged in a merger attempt with the Staff Association, agreed to support this lobby and to hold a meeting of their own.

In the meantime the NALGO National Emergency Committee failed to authorise the strike ballot grounds that united on the action" with other unions was needed.

Thus the stage was set for the events of October 18.

At the NALGO rally, workers carried placards demanding that General Secretary Drain authorise the ballot.

NALGO's Geoffrey Drain Drain ignored this demand. Positive news however came from Ken Deeves, leader of the NUPE estate workers, who announced they J were on unofficial strike DEFEND NUPE estate demanding that action official, throughout North London because their depleted workforce could no longer cope with the workload.

The "silent lobby', predictably had no effect on the Councillors and led to confusion among many of the workers-why were they silent when the Tories who were destroying their jobs were arriving?

A large demonstration of educational technicians then arrived bearing placards denouncing the Staff Association for undermining their attempts to negotiate directly with management over conditions and gradings.

INCINERATOR

workers are now Fisher m ike their while the massive Workers at CAV Acton have overwhelmingly rejected the derisory wage increase offered by the company.

At a mass meeting last Wednesday, workers threw out the offer, which was only 5% plus the possibility of a self-financing productivity scheme.

SAVED .ON It 170,000 Midlands Edmonton waste incinerator that serves most of North East London is about to be closed down by strike action.

The fight for an alternative leadership is focussed on the recently formed joint shop stewards committee.

On this committee talk of "unity" in place of action is peddled by Communist Party, SWP and IMG members alike.

All these people bring forward proposals for London-wide conferences, for special committees, for anything other than what is necessary-the building of strikes in support of those sections which have already moved into action.

obstacle that public sector workers confront in pushing for such increases-the official leaderships of the unions concerned.

To raise the minimum wage £55 means an increase way excess of 10%.

It means a fight against local management; against the Lib-Lab coalition government with its programme of 'cash limits' to enforce pay restraint in the public sector; and against the TUC bureauстасу who have dedicated themselves to holding down pay settlements. Simply to propose 'rank and file' action to tackle such problems is completely inadequate. While certain speakers claimed that NUPE leader Alan Fisher and other bureaucrats had attempted to disrupt the Birmingham conference, none of these attempts were detailed, and no course of action to combat them were proposed.

In the meantime a 'day of action' was hastily summoned for October 26, and a one-day strike, timed to coincide with the national 'day of action' against the cuts, called on November 23.

Several speakers claimed that the one-day strike call was not a substitute for all out strike action but a "build-up" to it.

Past experience however suggests that unless a comprehensive programme for action against both wage controls and the cuts is made Instead it was decided to press ahead with the £15 claim that has been submitted.

Management have already rejected the demand. At a meeting between the Executive Committee of the Shop Stewards Committee and management on 16 September, it was made plain that the company were going to adhere rigidly to the government pay guidelines.

In fact their offer of 5% conforms to the now defunct Stage 2 of the Social Contract, let alone the present policy!

Strike action is now very much on the agenda at CAV. GMWU convenor John Coughlan told the mass meeting to be prepared for industrial action later on, but it is now clear that this action will be needed sooner rather than later if workers are to halt the current drop in living standards. cuts

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PHOTO: Jo PHOTO: John Smith. IFL.