St Helens gasmen say:

THE GASWORKERS of Pocket Nook, St Helens, lead the north vest in the gas work-to-rule and strike. They came out on January 21, over three weeks ago, and they are still out, stamping in the cold and snow, manning the picket line at their depot-the headquarters of south Lancashire area of the North West Gas Board. ernment services.

On day three of official action, which now involves two-thirds of Lancashire's 6,000 gasworkers, they told me their story.

It was a tale of low pay, bad conditions and a pace of work so fierce that it threatened minimum safety standards laid down by the Board.

The men of Pocket Nook know they have taken on the government.

"They can win or we can win and beat the government, but I don't think these lads will see themselves crucified like the postmen,' their convenor, Alf Anderson, told me.

'There has been action in advance of the union call all over the south Lancashire area, that's St Helens, Wigan, Widnes, Runcorn and Warrington. Now the union has backed it we feel more backed up,' he said.

'Our case is simple, we want parity with other workers.

Most of the lads on the service side are time-served tradesmen. But a gas fitter will take home about £19.50 a week. With a wife and two kids you just can't do it.

"The comparable rate in the electricity industry is £6.50 higher. This kind of difference is ridiculous and illegal-even if we got the £2.25 they've offered, the powermen would follow to square one, would be back To men like Alf Anderson, Tory policy has meant one thing - a declining standard of living the prices 'freeze', he smiles cynically. 'I know how I live. The rent on the house has just been bumped up - where do I find the money? Prices are soaring in the shops. You're trapped. It's robbery. What does this government expect?' The St Helens men came out because of their disgust at the £2.25 insult and the Black of action by their union -the General and Municipal What did Alf think about the general situation, did he think other unions could do? "The TUC says it is opposed to this pothink the government. think unions should get together BY A WORKERS PRESS CORRESPONDENT FEARING mass unrest_ at price increases which are certain to follow the dinar devaluation, the Yugoslav govhas declared a fr eeze prices of goods and Most workers' wages have been frozen in Yugoslavia since December 31 last year and nearly a million workers suffered actual wage-cuts by government orders.

These cuts have led to a large number of strikes.

The dinar was devalued against gold by 10 per cent in the wake of the dollar this week. The parity change was made necessary by the great losses had the parity been maintained.

Zagreb radio said the severe economic shock which Yugoslav shipbuilders had suffered as a result of the sterling devaluation in 1967 would be a drop in the ocean compared with what the US devaluation had in store for them. FROM STEPHEN JOHNS Let's have out Tory government' Mike Wright •.. can't play around with gas. and try to fight as a body. Whether this would mean a General Strike, I don't know. This is getting into fields beyond what we are interested in or understand.

'Naturally enough we would like to see everyone together in this. It's all the same battle. But at the moment it's the gasworkers out in front,' said Alf.

The young gasworkers -often the lowest paid - pride themselves on their militancy. Joe Ousalice (22) and his mates man the picket lines every day.

IV HAICH ANNE Cllff Whitefleld angered by witch-hunt.

Joe could kick himself. He voted Tory at the last election. His views have changed decisively:

'We are all told we have a democracy. We all went to the election and voted in a government and those MPs there are supposed to say what we feel.

'Well it's quite obvious Heath has booted out all democracy completely.

'At the stroke of a pen he has by-passed the whole democratic system. I don't think people are aware of the kind of things this government is doing - but they'll like us gasworkers.' His mate Mick Crick (24) a maintenance fitter took up the Tory lies about prices.

'It makes me so mad to see them going on about prices like they do. The whole thing is rubbish, everyone is being conned robbed. We've just had the rent rise, now there's another 25p on top because of higher rates, but the government says we can have nothing, not a penny, he said.

Joe and Mick, standing outside the snow covered gates with their mates John Greenhall, Cliff Whitefield and Mike Wright, told me about another Tory slander — the high-paid gasworker.

All the national newspapers quote a £30-a-week wage. But they never mention how hard and how long gasmen must work to earn this kind of money.

John Greenhall (22) a maintenance fitter explained:

'They have all these terrific Young gasworkers (I to r) Joe Ousalice, Mick Crick and John Greenhall at the St Helens depot. Left: Pickets stop a lorry outside the gates.

bonus schemes that look fine on paper. But it's impossible to meet the pace in practice, he said.

'Do you know when you're working installing gas pipes, sometimes you're forced to work so fast it's positively dangerous — you're forced to break minimum standards even laid down by the Board itself.' Mike Wright (21), a maintenance fitter, agreed:

'You can't play around with gas this way, it's dangerous,' he said.

'We want to get rid of the bonus scheme altogether, then you can get a decent day's everything desperately, rushing Another source of intense anger is the witch-hunt on safety launched by the Tory press.

It makes me want to throw up; said Cliff Whitefield.

'We hear all the stories about the old-age pensiohers. They never call the Tories murderers, do they?

'But that's what they are. What about the thousands of old people who die every year because they can't afford to keep warm on a pension?

'The other lie is the one about danger. We have put emergency squads on. There is better coverage now than there was when things were normal.

'But the Press never publishes this. They're only interested in Tory lies,' said Cliff.

The St Helens men are like the many gas-workers leading the working-class fight all over the country. They have one answer for the Tories.

'Get them all out, all the unions, and let's have it out once and for all, said Joe-he spoke for almost every worker on the Pocket Nook picket line.