Cowley stand firm

OUR LABOUR

CORRESPONDENT FOUR THOUSAND Oxford carworkers were laid off yesterday by British-Leyland, which is refusing to meet the demand of body-plant workers for guaranteed shift pay during an assembly plant strike last week.

Production of the main Austin - Morris division model made at Oxford, the Marina, was stopped all day. The Maxi lines were also hit.

The number of workers laid off is expected to rise today, since all body production 1S completely halted and the 2,500 strikers have no plans to meet again before next Monday.

Main issue in the dispute, according to body-plant senior st eight bours Ployment. An offer chon steward Bill Roche, of eight hours' pay to cover earnings lost during the assembly workers' strike was rejected by a mass meeting on Monday.

The stewards insist that Leyland management is in breach of a 1971 guaranteed shift agreeThey point out that while the assembly plant gates were open throughout the dispute for men who would agree to work with work-study engineers, the body-plant gates were shut throughout. The body, workers were laid off indefinitely.

While the company claims the strikers are due for no money under a lay-off agreement, it has already made two offers and admitted yesterday that it was still hoping to reach a negotiated settlement.

Last week the Press crowed victory when the assembly workers returned to work after a highly - principled, eight - day struggle against the introduction work-study men, dubbed *industrial engineers' by the company.

The Oxford Mail, praised negotiating tactics at body plant which 'have been shown to be more effective and to involve less loss of earnings through strikes'.

This tireless enemy of working class in Oxford tempted to intervene inside trade union movement in Austin-Morris factories on behalf of the company.

Its target was the struggle for principled defence of the carworkers' jobs, living standards and organization.

But the carworkers have rapidly demonstrated that they utterly reject these attacks, and will continue to fight uncompromisingly in defence of their Right-wing guerrillas root for Young )TING commences Jonathan Guinness, the didates has been col- lished by the "ConserVOTING commences is week to elect a new merchant banker, this week to elect a new executive of the Monday Club, a right-wing branch of the Tory The balloting has taken a murky turn with the appearance of a four-page bulletin in support of George Young, the ex-deputy director of MI6.

Young is challenging the chairmanship of the influence by the Nation- Press, strongly supports

HOSPITAL ancillary

workers in Sheffield have voted unanimously to stage a three-day strike from today.

The decision was taken at a packed mass meeting on Monday of workers from all local hospitals.

It was revealed at the meeting that right-wing stewards belonging to the COHSE union had been holding secret BY OUR OWN THE TORY government's White Paper on the National Health Service, published yesterday, invites the private medical sector to step up its influence in the NHS.

Its publication is bound to anger striking hospital workers who are bitter about the way private practitioners bleed the NHS.

The document claims that the presence of the private patients in NHS hospitals is 'good for the service and helps to raise standards for other patients'.

The opposite is the truth. Hospital workers are made to spend extra time doing work for the private wards at the expense of working-class patients who can't afford the private fees.

There is another blatant lie in the White Paper. It rejects arguments that private beds in NHS hospitals necessarily mean long waiting lists for NHS patients: "They can have only a very marginal effect, it says.

But the number of private beds in NHS hospitals is expanding. This means that vital space in major hospitals is being handed over to those who belong to medical insurance schemes. This must-and does-mean that ordinary NHS patients come at the bottom of the queue when it comes to admissions for operations, etc.

Jonathan Guinness, merchant banker, the chairmanship of club.

The bulletin claims to be published by the 'National Association of Conservative Action Groups' of Coachmen's Mews, Edwin Square, London. But neither the organization nor the address is known.

The election battle between these two extremely reactionary canSheffield hospitals to stop three days Tories returning workers to medieval medicine REPORTER didates has been coloured by allegations of vative Underground oured by allegations of influence by the National Front.

Last week Guinness said if Young won the chairmanship, 'it would be considered a move in the National Front direction'. He added, however, that there no evidence to connect Young with the extreme right-wing Front.

The bulletin, does for the economy!

..'llu negotiations with the chief administrative officer of the United Sheffield Hospitals Group, Mr Kenneth Sumner.

They have been discussing return to work based on implementation of productivity schemes carrying lead-in payments of f1 a week.

A COHSE shop steward said after the meeting: SCORICES RGE 0/i4(/81 Sumner is going to get the money from unless his own pocket, out of pocket.' Union officials said the £1 was a 'red herring' and were equally sure that it could not be paid under the terms of the 'freeze', he said.

Stewards have organized pickets and toured hospitals to make sure there is no right-wing split of the strike. Bleeding the NHS The government lists the reasons why it is "beneficial' to have private facilities in NHS hospitals: • The fact that people-with the world to choose from-come to Britain enhancing its position as an international centre of medical excellence. • Part-time: consultants. with both private and NHS patients can give more time to them and deal with emergencies more easily if they are in the same hospital. • Private patient accommodation can be used for . NHS patients when required. • Amenities enjoyed by private practice may set standards for the • NHS to follow-as shown by the increased privacy in new hospitals. • If rivate practice is divorcea HS hospitals it could draw scarce professional skills away from them.

These statements represent a doctrinaire Tory attack on the NHS. These are the first shots in the Tories' campaign to set up dual health system in which the poor have to put up with the most feeble, miserable almost lished vativ Press, Young.

It says that Young has grasped the problem of unity facing the club and concludes that Guinness is both inconsistent and naive.

Guinness said there was strong evidence that the bulletin was the work of those in the club who wanted Young elected.

A union official yesterday: 'The feeling is very much that we have been pussyfooting around for too long and many of our members want to escalate the dispute' • Hospital: workers will hold a demonstration in Doncaster on Friday. Miners from Armthorpe and Bentley collieries have promised support. medieval medical services, while the rich can enjoy the privilege of the highly-paid consultant.

Sir Keith Joseph, the millionaire Secretary for Health and Social Services, has been a persistent. advocate. of the expansion of the private sector in the NHS.

This is scarcely surprising since a number of his Tory Party friends are intimately involved with profiting out of the private schemes.

President of the Western Provident Association is Sir John Partridge, the former president of the CBI who took a leading part in the tripartite talks. at GET YOUR BOOKS, PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS FROM THE paperbacks centre 28 charlotte st london wl NOW OPEN Monday 10 Thursday 9 an. -6 p.m.

Fridays fate night opening) a.m.-7.30 p.m hiLy:-Shan ALL TRADES UNIONS ALLIANCE MEETING lling all hospital workers COLLABORATION WITH PAY BOARDS FORCE THE TUC TO CALL A GENERAL STRIKE MAKE THE TORY GOVERNMENT • RESIGN Thursday April 5, 6.30 p.m *riars Hail, Blackfriars Roar London SE (near Blackfriars Tube)

Montage by A.P Chequers. and Downing Street which led to the introduction of the state pay laws.

The Tories despise the free National Heath Service, which was one of the major conquests of the working class after the war. They want it opened up for private exploitation It can be defended today only by a united struggle by all sections of workers against common enemy-the Tory goyernment.

An incoming Labour government must be instructed by the mass movement to nationalize the whole medical service-no loopholes-and expropriate the big drugs manufacturers.