4 million in line as union officials stall on pay

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Some the of most powerful groups of workers in the col intry spent last week w: iting for a move on their wage demands.

At the same time their leaders-intent on doing everything to avoid a fight against the Lib-Lab Coalition's 10% pay limitspent the week in ritual meetings with management, ritual denunciations of the employers and preparation for a decisive blow at their own members' demands.

South Wales lorry drivers -after a strike lasting just six days-voted to accept a deal thought to be in line with lorry drivers in Hull, the Midlands, Scotland and the North-15%.

Details have not been made public but it is expected that employers agreed to pay 10% on top of consolidation of Phases I and II.

Complete victory

ACAS was called into the dispute on Thursday and almost immediately TGWU officials handling the strike called off picketting by the 1,500 drivers, which had already stopped production in several factories in the area and as far afield as Leyland's plant in Cowley.

Despite the clearly inadequate demand, the deal appears to be complete victory for the drivers.

But the impact of this blow against the 10% limit is diminished by the fact that the Government has virtually accepted that haulage bosses will all break the limit rather than risk being closed down.

Although London has still to settle, the only open question is whether 25,000 drivers employed by the National Freight Corporation will also win 15%.

Overtime ban

William Rodgers, Minister of Tran port, has said he will sack Sir Daniel Pettit, NFC Chairman, if he concedes more than 10%.

Tanker drivers started their overtime ban on February 1 amid forecasts of petrol droughts and rising prices.

The action had its biggest effect in Scotland where deliveries were cut by up to 40% in some areas.

The drivers-employed by Shell, Esso, BP and Texacoare claiming rises between 30% and 40% and started 5 issues 10 issues 25 issues 50 issues I would l Name . Address Tanker drivers' official Jack l Ashwell their action in response to a 15% offer, including a productivity rise.

But TGWU General Secretary Jack Jones, announced his intention of sabotaging the claim. On Tuesday January 31 Jones met Rodgers and announced "an area of common good"

The need of the 8,000 tanker drivers-whose action has now been stalled for a month-is not for an overtime ban but a strike.

Decisive blow Only by taking the most decisive action and issuing a call for other sections to come out on their own claims against the 10% limit, can tanker drivers win their full (though again inadequate) demands and strike a decisive blow for the whole working class.

Instead TGWU transport PRESS * to Socialist Press Circulation Manager, Park Hill, London NW5 1HR trade group secretary, Jack Ashwell, said the resumption of talks was a 'distinct possibility.

There was, he said, no great difference between the offer and what the drivers would accept.

Railway workers leaders turned up at the British Railways Board on Tuesday January 31 to deliver claims for a restoration of pay to 1975 levels.

Left talking Ray Buckton ASLEF General Secretary, slapped down a claim for t25 - 130 a week, declared the union was "not interested in any government guidelines" , and then left.

Vague claim But of course Buckton's threat that the Government "would be wise to change its course" is empty without concrete plans to bring the railways to a halt.

The NUR leaders as usual eschewed left talk. They have called for a halt to declining living standards and have added a vague claim for indexation if inflation increased 'exceptionally'.

General Secretary, Sidney Weighell, agreed to talk about an 'efficiency scheme' after pay talks are over. In other words Weighell, ignoring the union conference demand for a 63% rise, is ready to settle for a pittance and to sell jobs. Only last week Weighell was demanding that the Railways Board fill 9,000 jobs which his policies are directly responsible for allowing to arise.

Ballot moved

The two most powerful single sections of workers had claims submitted on the same day last week, Thursday 2 . £1.10 .£2.20 . £5.50 €10.00 31, PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report February.

But miners and power workers have no reason to believe that action on their claims is a day nearer.

The NUM lodged their 90% claim for rates up to £135 and received in reply an offer of 10%-plus a warning that the NCB expected the 12 month rule to continue for another year.

Arthur Scargill moved a ballot on industrial action which was seconded by Emlyn Williams, South Wales President, but which did not receive a single additional vote The NUM have now asked the Government and the TUC to persuade the NCB to increase their offer-the equivalent of asking Al Capone for protection against his gang.

Scargill's resolution, in the context of his refusal to fight for action against the productivity deals, is little more than a left cover for his nakedness.

Impotence

The truth is that Scargill's impotence as an alternative leader of the NUM has been revealed. To win support for strike action on the £135 claim noW the divisive productivity deal has been introduced would require the most rigorous campaign on a programme to confront wage controls and assert the independence of the union.

In place of this Scargill offers opportunism, left talk and accomodation to the right wing.

The power workers are in a similar position to the miners. Frank Chapple, who a month ago was talking about the last light going out in Britain, spent Thursday warning the employers about unofficial action his by EETPU members.

Trouble

The Electricity Council have offered 10% plus a £3 a week productivity deal. Electricity supply workers -from three unions all 'represented' by Chapple-are claiming up to 40%.

The problems faced by Chapple in holding back the 90,000 workers were expressed when he warned the employers organisation to "gird its loins" for trouble.

Chapple has already downgraded the claim to £11-12 a Steel union cheif Bill Sirs week and has warned that unofficial action will probably start if the next offer due on February 15 does not match it.

He clearly has no intention of extinguishing a single light.

Pay talks for 67,000 steel workers ended without agreement on Wednesday February 1 after British Steel increased their offer from 6% to 92%provided the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation agrees to cut jobs and sign a disputes procedure which will virtually outlaw unofficial action.

Reasonable claim

Bill Sirs, general secretary, protested that British Steel was "taking advantage' of their financial crisis but has not made a single gesture towards action. He has not even broken off talks.

The Civil and Public Servants Association and the Society of Public and Civil Servants have both lodged claims well outside the 10% limit.

On Wednesday the SPCS put in for an increase of up to 28%. General secretary, Gerry Gilman, said plaintively: "It is a responsible, reasonable and researched claim. There is no question of the Government's ability to pay it"

The CPSA with 190,000 members to the SPCS's 105,000, submitted a claim £6-£19 (14%-24%) the following day.

Bizarre

The claim payable from April 1 is supposedly based on loss of purchasing power and is made up of £6 minimum on top of consolidation.

Perhaps the most bizarre negotiations were held on Friday on national rates for three million engineering workers. The union team, under Hugh ~ Scanlon, decreased their claim from 7.9% to 5%. The employers increased their offer from 2.5% to 4.5%. £3 now separate the £60 minimum skilled rate from the £57 offer.

"Unacceptable"

For many engineering workers the rates are the basis on which local rises are negotiated. But for tens of thousands the rise in the minimum rate sets their actual percentage wage rate. Miners' leaders Daly and Gormley Scanlon called the offer "totally unacceptable" but his only conclusion is that it might be better to break off national negotiations altogether and leave local sections to fight for their own wage increases.

Condemned

Thousands of engineering workers in small factories where membership is weak would be condemned to no wage increases at all. Scanlon would also be able to wash the union's hands of those sections which fought • for claims larger than 10%.

In all, just short of four million workers were negotiating for wage increases outside the 10% last week.

They have the industrial muscle several times over to bring the country to a halt. Almost any two sections together has the power to smash the 10% and break the Lib-Lab coalition. Yet the chances of this happening, if anything, receded during the week. All the unions are led by outright supporters of the coalition and-at best-tacit supporters of wage control.

Inadequate

In 'normal' times militant leaders would be sufficient to lead a major breach of the 10%. Under conditions where the TUC and the whole labour bureaucracy is determined to uphold that limit those militants have become totally inadequate because of their refusal to confront the political question involved the breaking of the Lib-Lab coalition established for the sole purpose of maintainig wage control.

Workers wishing to break the 10% must understand that to do so requires bringing down a government-as surely as the miners were forced to bring down Heath in 1974.

They require new leaders. Yet those new leaders must have as a minimum requirement a political will to stand up against the array of fake lefts and Stalinist betrayers as well as the openly right wing leaderships.

Clarity At the same time those leaders must root themselves in the strength of the working class, which is capable of sweeping aside the government and the TUC.

The lessons of the toolroom strike, the power workers action and the firemen all point to one conclusion: that strength without political understanding will almost certainly be snared by the treachery of their politically conscious, but thoroughly reactionary It is to fight for that clarity that Trotskyists must campaign in the coming period as the major actions against Phase 3 break out from beneath the smothering cloak of the labour leaders.

The demand must be to break the 10% limit, and win full catching up pay increases, protected against inflation through cost of living clauses.

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