[Ambulancen en have been taking special interest in…]

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Ambulancen en have been taking special interest in the firemen's strike.

Their own pay claim for a £55 minimum wage would have the same impact on the 10%.

Their present wages of £34 to £40.52 for a 45 hour week will need to be raised by between 40 and 50% to meet their demands.

The ambulancemen are also calling for five weeks holiday, better sick pay and a 40 hour, five day week.

Rejected

The claim, submitted by the trade union side of the ambulance pay council, also includes a call for inflationproofing.

The empioyers rejected the claim last week. despite the fact that representeres of the four unions involvedNUPE, COHSE, TGWU and GMWU-only met last Friday to finalise the claim.

All out strike action alongside the firemen is the only way that ambulancemen will be able to win their claim in the face of such arrogant action by the employers.

Propaganda

And despite the government's NHS cuts which have drastically reduced the ambulance service, the ambulancemen will have to face the same propaganda of putting lives at risk as now confronts the firemen.

It is the Lib-Lab government that will be the real culprit. Like the firemen. ambulancemen will find that

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SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesdes 33 Sorember 197. SOCTALIST PRESS, Wednesda: 23 Norember 197"

Sheffield steelworkers marching last year against sackings SOCIALIST Plans to axe 24,000 steelworkers' jobs and completely close a number of steel plants over the next two years are now drawn up by Treasury officials.

12,000 jobs which allegedly make the industry "overmanned" at present, should be axed at. once, say the Treasury, headed by coalition cabinet minister Joel Barnett.

According to management figures, BSC lost £200 million between April and September of this year. They claim that annual losses are now at the £500 million level, and that a further £600 million is needed for new investment.

Steamroller

Such figures are deliberately used at this point to steamroller union officials into acceptance of swingeing cuts in the labour force.

No worker has any real way of checking on these statistics at present.

Nor can steelworkers explain how such huge losses could be accumulated while they continue to be exploited on the shop floor with wages slashed by inflation linked to rigid wage controls.

The pronouncement that the industry is "overmanned" comes from management, not from committees of workers.

Meanwhile part of the reason for the slump in demand for steel is the deliberate government cutbacks in the construction industry, coupled with the chronic low level of production in manufacturing industry. Both are prompted by the profits crisis of British employers.

"Foreign"

British Steel is now suggesting that a cutback of 40,000 to 60,000 in the workforce would be necessary to reach what they describe as "foreign" staffing levels.

Discussions are already proceeding with steel union bureaucats to determine the size of a possible buy-off payment to ensure thousands of "voluntary" redundancies.

Figures between £5,000 and £15,000 have been thrown around.

But the cost to the working class of losing further thousands of jobs and the enforced speed-up that will follow for those that remain cannot be calculated in this way.

It is obvious that the cost maintaining BSC's 208,000 NO/ workforce is a minor element in such a monumental cash crisis.

The starting point for any action by steel unions must be to elect independent trade union committees with the power to coopt sympathetic experts and to demand immediate access to the accounts and plans of BSC management.

The biggest protest march since the Tory Industrial Relations Act took place just over a year ago.

Eighty to one hundred thousand workers, many involved in protest for the first time, flooded into London to declare their willingness to fight cuts in the social services.

But they have still not been called on to do so by union officials.

Instead 'natural wastage' outright backdoor deals and cuts have been forced GREEDY INARICIOUS BOSSES Where for instance is the £600 million "investment" to be spent? How many private suppliers are creaming fortunes from the "nationalised" steel industry?

How many private steel firms continue to make profits while the state sector remains saddled with the most costly investment and production processes? through in every area of the public sector by management backed by the collaboration of union bureaucrats.

Where there has been a fight from the shop-floor there has been a response. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital remains open and functioning-despite government plans to axe it over a year ago-as a result of work-in action.

And a similar work-in at the Hounslow Hospital was rallying such support that management took the step of attempting to wreck the hospital, and forcibly snatchPARK. PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report Sirs How many private manufacturers profit from steel supplies subsidised through BSC?

These questions and many more remain to be answered in drawing up a workers' plan to develop the steel And union leaders must be forced to spell out that steel workers jobs are not up for ing the remaining patients.

A shop stewards call for protest strikes against this action-called by the Committee of London Area Stewards in the Health Service (CLASH) brought stoppages in many hospitals.

But national union officials have remained silent, and local struggles have remained deliberately isolated.

Demands for all-out national action to stop the cuts, for restoration of government spending, and for social services to be protected against inflation through a the cuts.

The full details of last Wages Council meeting However, it seems that present minimum of negotiated.

Predictably the Tories, b have attacked the rises as incomes policy.

auction.

If the industry has temporary shortage of work, the work available must be divided between the whole workforce, without loss of take-home pay.

The crisis is not the product of workers or the unions-and workers must not now bear the cost of it.

However such a policy means an immediate fight must be taken up against bureaucrats such as ISTC General Secretary Bill Sirs, who has already stated his willingness to "help" solve BSC's crisis-which can only mean his willingness to trade in the jobs of his members.

Meanwhile the other side of BSC's offensive against its workforce can be seen in management's refusal to offer more than 7% in the current round of pay negotiations.

Sliding scale

Job cuts are linked inseparably to wage cuts and to speed up.

1,000 GMWU members at the Stanton Iron works in Derbyshire are now on strike against this pay policy, demanding a £15 rise coupled with a further 40p for every 1% rise in the cost of living.

The dispute remains unofficial as yet, and messages and donations should be sent to B. McGinley, 29, Glendon Road, Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire. sliding scale of spending have fallen on deaf bureaucratic ears.

Now, a year later, public sector union chiefs have set out to prove that no-one cares about the cuts. They have called a Parliamentary lobby with restricted delegations.

And such is the level oi frustration at union officials mesives are even refusing on members are even retusing to sign protest petitions against This situation can only be transformed by the fight in the public sector unions for a principled leadership and a serious programme of strike action.

PRESS * Wednesd have yet rises of around ath in their press i serious breach Nevertheless employe such as Tiny Rowlan Maxwell Joseph and Charl Forte despite public mi givings will rest easy in th knowledge that unic officials will be fighting fi acceptance of this increase an increase which will d nothing to end the paying ‹ starvation wages to worke in the hotel and caterir First test The first test of the settl ment will come on Tuesda November 22 when th Centre Hotels resume negoti tions on their claim for £50 minimum wage.

Stewards, who three weet ago rejected management derisory offer of 137 wi now be asked by union tu time officials to regard 13% as a major victory k hotel workers.

In rejecting this betras: and reaffirming their comr: ment to the £50 minimu: claim the Centre Hote branch can provide a lead i all other branches with clair pending.

Device

As we pointed out in la: week's Socialist Press it vital that the Wages Counc structure is challenged by th spread of the f50 claim.

This body is a class colla! oration device for perpetua ing low wages paid in th industry and ensuring tha super profits continue to = made. Any fight for decer wages and conditions means fight to end this structure.

Events at the Metropo: -where workers have been o strike since October 10 for £50 minimum wage look lik taking a new turn this wee with management impleme: ting threats of dismissal.

Such an act challenges th right of trade unionists t strike over wages an conditions. The seve workers still out on strik must not be allowed to t victimised in this wa! GMWU branches throughot the industry must deman that the union leaders take u a fight for their reinstateme: and support those still o strike with finance and deb gations on the picket lines.

Orr abu y's Hotel Worker to be published 13%-17% on thi £32 have beer and Parliamen of governmen