[Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill…]

Scan page 11

SOCIALIST

Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill sack for the seven members of the General and Municipal Workers Union still out.

Since October 10, after over 200 voted to strike for a £50 minimum wage, the Metropole dispute passed through a number of phases and inevitably, critical turning points where decisions had to be taken.

Tendencies

Tested out in this struggle, which challenged the 10% pay limit and the TUC's 12-month rule were not only the hotel workers themselves ПаТ 8ІРЯ 118 011 ПР thr finkt noninat thri+ own leaders, also …a but number of political tendencies.

Drawing a balance sheet of the strike and in particular the lessons it holds for militants who will be involved in future struggles in the hotel industry, must mean at the same time an assessment of the method and practice of these organisations.

It is important to place the start of the Metropole strike in its political context.

12 Month rule The Lib-Lab coalition Phase 3 strategy of a 10% limit on wage rises had been introduced shortly before along with the 12-month rule.

The GMWU bureaucracy, who had been at the foreAside from this, they have for many years actively participated in maintaining low wages in hotel and catering by propping up the class collaborationist Wages Council which sets minimum wages for the industry and which had by October already produced proposals in its Green Paner for a naltru eo vArUI LupuI Iul u puIey. £4 rise on rates scarcely above £30 a week.

Quite apart from their long and dishonourable record of sell-outs and 'sweetheart-union' style agreements with the likes of Trust Houses Forte, it was inevitable that AISPAT ATIP AXPI NINOM Carr thatt unuld Ialo say mardarar necessary to defeat a strike which challenged their strangle-hold on the independence of their membership.

No support Despite assurances to the contrary from GMWU fulltime officials before the strike began, within days it had become clear that official support from the union would not be given.

On the contrary, Tilston, the union recruiting officer, who had led negotiations with management, on the second night tried unsuccessfully to get the strikers to disband their picket lines.

The following day regional official Romp instructed them to return to work. Though these attempts failed found jobs elsewhere left only 60 strikers remaining.

From then on it was clear that this number, which was to dwindle still further, by themselves could not win.

But what had happened at the Metropole was not taking place in isolation from events elsewhere. In fact it MTHALYU soon became apparent that a wages movement was building up throughout the London hotels workforce which raised mass action around the £50 minimum wage as a real possibility.

The fate of the Metropole claim was to depend on the alaim una to Asaad on tha spreading of the fight to these other sections of the class.

It was this assessment and perspective which had been fought for by supporters of the Workers Socialist League within the Hotels Action Committee, which, from the earliest days of the strike, had given assistance.

Production of strike bulletins, appeals for finance and support for the pickets was organised from its regular and frequent meetings.

Action

But it was on the key issue of mobilising action on the £50 minimum wage from other groups of catering workers that the Action Committee concentrated. is considerably below what could be considered a decent living wage (and lacks the vital call for an inflation proofed cost of living clause) is not, in itself, the issue.

The fact was that a strike was aiready underway on this policy and its unifying effect created conditions for many thousands more to be brought out alongside them.

Super-profits

In this sense the stakes were high as under threat were not only the superprofits of the hotel owners but the far from remote -ann a rue in formisera nranihilitir of ernh CATERINE SUPPORT STRIKE /ÖFFICAL BACKING THE Now!

Mass picket of the Metropoie ment spreading beyond the industry and linking up with those others opposing Phase All this was not lost on the GMWU national leadership and they quickly organised to head off and derail the pressure that was building up.

Adjourned

Centre Hotels, among the best organised of all the hotel chains, were their first and biggest problem. The workers London branch had a policy of action unless the claim was met and negotiations seemed unlikely to produce concessions from the employer. The GMWU's tactic was simple; to prepare a claim in excess of the £50 and send in Fred Cooper, the National Officer, to play for time. The outcome was a three-week adjournment for the out would not last long.

Sacking

A report at the beginning of November that the GMWU officials were attempting to reorganise the union in the hotel was further indication that sacking was imminent.

Unlike struggles over basic union rights where the numbers involved are almost entirely subordinate to the principles at stake, a fight on wages provides room for tactical retreats.

Certainly, when forces combine to make victory impossible the major consideration must be to get back inside and begin the work necessary to prepare for a new situation.

This was the view taken by the Workers Socialist League, and in fact argued openly by a WL Action Committee member at meeting on November Accepted The only option open apart from this would be in the unlikely event of the Rank Hotel membership overturning their leadership's support for the 10% at meetings early the following week. Ranks voted to accept.

A battle then broke out between those who argued for this position and the Metropole Strike leadership itself, and in particular John Bruce, GMWU • Senior Steward, who refused to accept either the assessment or the conclusions.

It was, however, not the first time the call for a return to work had been made. In fact after the first few weeks it had come from the Workers Revolutionary Party, who threw considerable resources into the strike and had influence within it.

Counting heads

Their call, based completely on an impressionist 'counting of heads method and failure to grasp the dialectical relationship between the lessening of pickets at the Metropole and the build-up of a movement in the other hotels, was correctly rejected with justified hostility.

Subsequently, the WRP's involvement was negligible, though with supporters in issues issues issues issues (Over Name. .

Address PRESS y issI Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth London NW5 1HR

SINGEr

Centre Hotels, they co have been an important fc in preventing the sellthere.

Though when the ti came the WSL argued w the strikers at every opp tunity for a return to wi (while at the same ti organising and declar public support for strikers' continued fight) majority voted to stay c By the end of the follow week the company circula dismissal letters to the do or so who remained.

By the fifth week of strike the main questions ! been fought out and decid At about this point and fr then on the Socialist Work Party began to orient towards the dispute v increasing activism.

Echo

Their anti-politi combination of Discos i fund raising activities at expense of any attempt wr soever to offer either analy or perspective, not surprisi ly found an echo with th strike leaders who sha their distaste for a scient assessment of the cl struggle. Unfortunately, now even for those who not, it was too late.

The strike ended in dem alisation and defeat, all more so as what was there be salvaged was lost as w The experiences are wo giving time to consider ner theless. For those Sa opposing forces inevitably be driven i conflict under different cr ditions as new strugg emerge.

. £1.10 £2.20 £5.50 10.00 tes: write for details es. I :2mra

----- pull-quotes -----

ESO MİNIMUM WAGE FOR ALL

METROPOLE HOTEL LABOUR IN THE HOTEL AND CATERING

achL SATS

HOTEL AND AND WORKERS UNTE FIGHT TO SPREAD THE

THIS METROPOLe HOTEL STRIKE