Wade's Bid to Smash Nuj Strike

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Picketing firemen warm themselves at Euston fire station The EEPTU lift engineers' vote to return to work for a paltry 1015% instead of their 130% claim is a blow to the whole wages offensive.

The 1300 strong meeting in London, the centre of the biggest firms, was of course stage-managed and then given maxim um publicity to influence the vote elsewhere.

Not mentioned Joe Wade, General Secretary of the NGA, pulled his master stroke to sabotage the Darlington journalists strike for a closed shop last week, at the very moment that the NUJ Executive finally decided to spread the strike.

Calculating correctly that PHOTO: Mark Rusher. IFL try where they could their own vegetables.

Godfrey Webster, Assistant Secretary of the Trades Council said it was no accident that Faulds attacked every struggle of the working class from Clay Cross to the firemen.

He had. long ago abandoned any pretence of representing the working class and now seemed to favour abolishing it altogether.

He demanded that Faulds along with the present leadership of the Labour should be expelled.

George Johnson, Trades Council Secretary, said that the biggest problem facing the working class was the treachery of its leadership.

At Leyland's Longbridge plant the TUC havé actually vetoed a wages deal accepted by management and their his ability to delay attempts to raise the seven month old strike to a level necessary to win had expired, he persuaded the Darlington NGA members on December 6 to call off their support and to return to work.

Renegade printers

Thus the striking journalists face the relaunching of the North of England newsrole on Grunwick was ing all trade unionists.

Andrew Faulds had said he was horrified at the growth of support for the National Front in his constituency, but he and the Labour Government had themselves laid the basis for this by their constant attacks on the working class.

Finally a local fireman said that he did not consider his union were a special case.

They had been taken on by the Government as representatives of the whole working class and this explained the magnificent support they were receiving from the local labour movement.

Faulds would do well to papers, closed since August, using scab journalists and the renegade printers.

Wade told the NGA members that the journalists -who had voted 79-1 against accepting an offer from management (which gave them nothing whatsoever)were intransigent.

He also claimed that since NUJ General Secretary Ken Ashton, had not argued strongly against the proposals at a meeting with management, they amounted to joint management/union proposals.

Ashton has denied this but admitted that he stayed in the meeting and helped word the management offer that was put to the strikers 'without comment'.

Significantly, at this crucial meeting representatives from Darlington and London, where journalists were locked out for supporting the strikers, were excluded-for the first time in the dispute.

The NUJ Executive, who have a letter from Wade saying that he would consider unlimited escalation, now claim that they have been stabbed in the back by the NGA. But in fact it was the NUJ Executive which refused to escalate the dispute, despite calls to do so from other papers owned by Westminister Press.

Escalation The Group NUJ Chapel first called for escalation in August. Since it was accepted in principal by the NUJ Executive in September, stronger action had constantly been postponed *in case we'offend the NGA' The right wing leadership of the union had willingly played into Wade's hands to leave the Darlington journalists more bitter than at any time during the strike.

Meanwhile they have decided to continue their action.

Second While the Darlington strikers do their best to pick up the pieces, the union leadership has called for rejection of the latest pay offer to provincial journalists of 10%.

The second offer, coming days after the TUC's open backing for the 10% limit, was actually worse than the first.

A depleted meeting chapel delegates in Birmingham on Saturday (December 10) voted to endorse rejection and to campaign for strike action early in the new y cal The meeting rejected out of hand attempts to devise clever schemes around the 10% limit.

A call was made to lobby the TUC on December 21 and to campaign for a joint effort by all sections of workers against the 10% limit.