NUS backs apartheid pay

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PHOTO: Mark Rusher IFL STRIKE OUR UNO Ford workers at Halewood are now in the fifth week of their strike against management speed-up plans.

Already, 10,000 men have been laid off as a result of the strike in the press shop, and last weekend they were joined by 1,500 workers at the Southampton plant which makes Transit vans.

Last Friday Jack Jones, TGWU General Secretary met union officials to discuss the question of making the dispute official.

The results of these talks expected later this week.

Cracks have appeared in the ranks of Newspaper Society employers after a week of work to rule by National Union of Journalist members.

While the Newspaper Society has been laying down tough rulings banning local wage negotiations for provincial journalists, individual employers have offered local pay rises in excess of 10% and a promise that they will be backdated to January 1.

The work to rule-including a ban on night work, a refusal to use private transport and an obsturctive 'one job at a time ruleNational Union of Seamen gen ral secretary, Jim Slater, has given his differentials in British ships for another five years;

Slater has endorsed a report* which abandons the union's claim for an immediate removal of differentials under which Asian seamen (who constitute one-third of the lower ranks on British merchant ships) earn f49 a month against British seamen's £187 a month, for the same work on the same ship.

TRANSPORT & CENERAL WORKERS UNDN IFI OFFICIAL Slater's action is arity with capitalism home and overseas.

The report is the joint work of the employers, the government and the NUS-in the shape of Slater and it has unanimously recommended that the government should grant a five year period of grace.

Meanwhile the employers will use the time to rid themselves of labour which is no longer to be so cheap.

The report states that if differentials had been removed in 1976 the employers would have faced a cost rise of between 106% and 169%.

It is this dramatic rise that has ensured the collaboration of Slater in this apartheid at sea.

But his reasons are also international. Slater said that the NUS accepted the change over 5 years after the Indian government predicted widespread labour unrest inside India if pay rates rose too quickly.

This view was supported by the Indian sea unions, on whom pressure to fight for higher wages would have become immense.

*Employment of Nondomiciled Seafarers: SO, £1.75.

RANSPORT CENERAL WORKERS UNIDN GARNERS STAFF Last Friday's demonstration Tig Swan Hunter management took savage vengeance on Monday against boilermakers who refused to knuckle under to a 'no strike' promise in return for work.

The employers issued 1,000 redundancy notices, most of them to boilermakers and have promised more to come.

The shipyard workers are being held up as an example to their fellow workers all over Europe-work is to be given only in exchange for basic union rights.

Responsibility

The Tyneside workers have a responsibility to defend every last job. They must demand that the work available is shared out among all the workers without the loss of a single penny from the pay packets.

Shop stewards must prepare plans to occupy the plant and to demand the opening of all the secret deals around the Polish ship order and other orders, directly to workers' committees.

They must demand that the allocation and execution of the orders is controlled by the shipyeard workers' stewards committees.

Public works

A programme of public works must be demanded for the docks on projects in the interests of, and under the control of, the working class.

PHOTO: Ray Smith IFL But clearly these demands must be linked with an all-out battle against the treacherous leadership on the Clyde-the Communist Party and Jimmy Airlie, who welcomed the scab ships diverted from Swan Hunter and who is directly responsible for the sackings.

Council of action

The workers must also turn their attention to the Lib-Lab coalition whose policies have been directed towards an end to union rights and mass sackings.

All those who defend this government in the Labour Party and the unions must be removed from positions of leadership.

This campaign clearly cannot be confined to the shipyards or to the Tyne.

A council of action must be called for to draw in support for the Tyneside workers and unite their struggle for jobs with all struggles against the anti-working class policies breaking out on wages and jobs in the area.

Other shipyards' stewards must call mass meetings to declare support for the Swan Hunter workers.

The treacherous leadership of the Govan shipyard must be replaced and solidarity built with the Tyneside to defend their jobs. Airlie has a short memory about the support flooding into the Clyde to defend their jobs during the work-in. The

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backing to a plan to maintain racist pay

95% FROM LINFAIR EMPLOYER

GARNERS STEAK HoUseS UNITE NITION

JFFICI OFFICIAL STRINI CTRINE