DESTRIAL NEWS Scandal of the UPW men fined for trade

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As soon as protests were made they accused the protestors of disruption and closed down the meeting.

Soon after when the procedures for the convenors' elections were published it emerged that all those running the election were nominees of Buckle and that no scrutineers were to be allowed from the branches.

Then, arising from the closure of the previous meeting, the District Committee set up a disciplinary hearing in which a six man subcommittee of right wingers would be given authority to charge who they liked with what they liked, to sit in judgement and then recommend sentences to the Regional Committee.

All the main left candidates in the election then received lists of charges. In almost every case, including Fryer and Thornett, charges were involved which carried expulsion and barring from office as possible sentences.

The charges were to be taken in the two days following the elections and according to the Daily Telegraph the By January 1, 1978 when the new terms of office commenced the job would be done and the opposition destroyed.

But the plan misfired. The 5/293 and 5/55 branches had moved quickly • On the scrutiny of the ballot and a visit to the Regional Office established the right of the branches to scrutinise.

24-hour guard The branch scrutineers did thorough job. The ballot boxes were placed under a 24 hour guard from Monday morning when the ballot started until Wednesday morning when the count took place.

The result was a victory for Fryer over Parsons by 1195 against 995. Almost 800 votes were cast for Thornett, giving him 4th position out of the 28 candidates for the seven full time deputy convenor positions. Corti was also elected.

The wheel had turned full circle. Fryer and Thornett were re-elected by popular vote-the very method introduced to remove them in 1974.

By Reg what Mathers will decide to do.

The TGWU stewards met soon after the election and declared they would resist to the . full any attempt to interfere with the results of the election.

The only people who spoke in defence of the inquiry were the Stalinists who opposed the motion on the grounds that it "could interfere with the outcome of a constitutional inquiry"

The next issue to be confronted by the new leadership will be the public declaration by British Leyland that they will not recognise Alan Thornett.

This will come up on January 3 when Thornett is due to take office.

Vindication

The election results are a vindication of the policies: pursued by those fighting for alternative leadership in the plant over the past 3½ years -the fight against closure, to open the books, for work sharing on full pay, for catching up claims to regain wages lost over the last four years and for cost of living clauses to protect against inflation.

Tom Jackson and the UPW leadership have shown their real attitude to the Grunwick struggle and to their own members' democratic rights.

On December 22 the UPW disciplinary committee fined leading London postmen a total of £1,400 for their part in the blacking of Grunwick mail.

One officer, John Taylor, was fined an astonishing £500, and another, Derek Walsh £300. These savage penalties are far bigger than any meted out by reactionary JPs to Grunwick pickets.

Unanimous

The sole 'crime' these men had committed was.to implement a unanimous decision of the UPW's London District Council-which called for the blacking of Grunwick mail.

This scandalous action by the UPW leadership just about completes the picture of TUC betrayal. on Grunwick. The only section of workers to have carried out any effective action against the employer receives huge fines.

unionism This is a parallel to the suspension of . APEX strike committee members for picketing the TUC.

The London postmen's action was typical of the response by tank and file trade unionists to the Grunwick fight. John Taylor said:

'The principle of fighting for union recognition and the credibility of the movement bourgeois courts.

Mr Justice Watkins pulled no punches. He pronounced that in his view the national executive was not bound is far more union rules The UPW fines show tha the union bureaucracy cannc be relied on to win th struggle. The Grunwick strik committee must ignore th threats of action against ther by the APEX bureaucrats an prepare a mass lobby of th TUC.

At the centre of th: campaign must be a fight t press trade union bodie officials, shop stewards an members to sign a declar tion that they will act i support of any section c workers that black electricit post and water to Grunwicl and demanding the TUC ca officially for such blacking.

Within every union, an particularly the UPW, resoh tions must be. passe demanding the lifting of th fines on the London postme and for disciplinary actio against those who carried or this shameful attack.