Rolls Men Stay Out

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After eight weeks, the dispute which has closed the two Rolls Royce plants in Willesden, North London, is still on.

Last Tuesday (November 1), the strike committee unanimously rejected a new offer by the firm-an offer which falls far short of the 17% the men are demanding.

Predictably, the company's argument was that the maximum it could offer was 10% "under the government's pay guidelines". • Hitherto it had been offering just 8%.

With production of Rolls Royces at a standstill, the men feel confident that management will have to concede their demand soon.

A spokesman for the stewards said after last Tuesday's decision that "the men are solidly behind us and we intend to fight on."

In another move, the strikers have written to-of all people-the Queen, telling her why the Jubilee limousine being built by the company will not be finished on timea point the workers astonishingly apologise for!

But with neat irony they also enclosed a collection sheet and invite HRH to give a donation.

Needless to say all they will get from this (newly) bespectacled relic of feudalism is a right-royal silence.

Such pranks do not offer a way forward for Rolls Royce workers. They must campaign for supporting action from the local labour movement and other Rolls Royce plants in order to win the full claim.

The Agricultural Wages Board, covering some of the lowest paid workers in the country, has awarded a 12-13% wage increase.

This news has incensed employers who are used to cheap labour, and who are being pre: ssed to concede an increase above the 10% government norm even without a struggle.

And it will probably enrage farmworkers also, for whom 12-13% of a pathetic wage amounts to a pathetically small increase-far short of the claim submitted by the Agricultural Workers Union.