Widespread builders' campaign against 'lump'

BUILDING union leaders talks with the employers growing movement among spread of labour-only subc In its worst form 'the lump kers who pay no income tax, hawk themselves round from card.

They are used by employers to break down established conditions, smash hard-won working practices and undermine all site organization. And use of the system is on the increase.

Today thousands of building workers, in most major cities, will strike and demonstrate as MPs give a second reading to Eric Heffer's anti-'lump' Bill.

Short shrift for the Bill can be expected from the Tory government. The building employers, who contribute heftily to Tory Party funds, have already made clear that as far as they are concerned 'the lump' is essential.

But the issues raised by the workers' campaign are potentially highly explosive; if the union chiefs can patch up a temporary deal with the employers which will let them off the hook they will be more than happy.

Faced not only with the threat to their jobs from 'the lump' but with a fierce legal onslaught against their rights to strike and picket, building workers are in a militant mood.

Hard evidence of the legal attack will come today, when seven men face committal proceedings at Shrewsbury accused of causing an affray, damaging property and intimidation.

Workers from London, the Midlands and Merseyside will be there to demonstrate their solidarity with the seven, despite MIMI!!•/:111:10315838333231 MAY FUND NOW STANDS WE MUST reach at least our halfway mark by tomorrow. So far our total stands at £694.96 which is a long way from our overall target of £1,750. Raise as much as you can and rush it to us immediately.

If we make a big effort now we know we will complete our target in time. More than ever this month, we need to complete our Fund.

As thousands of workers face a new round of huge price increases, the trade union leaders begin their talks on Phase Three and completely turn their backs on the fight to defend the basic rights of their members.

a political lead. Help us therefore to raise our Fund so that our paper can be expanded throughout every district. Give us an extra amount wherever you can. Post every donation immediately to:

186a Clapham High Street London SW4 7UG £100,000 PARTY BUILDING A GOOD post has pushed the fund up to £22,713.99.

branches sent in: Central London £10; Battersea £9; Southwark £12; Acton £11; Bristol £6; Holloway £1; Croydon £18; Crawley £25; Castleford £4.27; Reading £5; Aberdeen 27; Brixton £12.50; Exeter £2; Lewisham £13; Leeds £6.20; Artists £5; Post Office Workers £5; British-Leyland LABOUR buy no site to BSA workers face have entered into private aimed at heading off the their members against the ontracting-'the lump'.

mobile gangs of worinsurance stamps and site without a union the anti-lump' marches elsewhere. And they plan to be there again on June 15 when 17 others face committal on charges, including intimidation.

The most serious legal weapon being pointed in the Shrewsbury cases is the 1875 Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act.

But other ancient decrees are also being dredged up. In Lonđon this wek, a striking electrictan from the St Thomas's Hospital site was bound over under an Act which dates from 1361.

this atmosphere-and with 'lump' labour now providing an estimated 25 per cent of the building labour force nationally —more and more building workers are being driven to the conclusion: the Tory government is orchestrating a ruthless strategy against all their rights.

Yet their union leaders, like the leadership of the TUC generally, are, to put it most charitably, dragging their feet.

The purpose of the proposals they have put to the employers, for informal discussion over the next few weks, is to "control' labour-only subcontracting, not abolish it.

They want a joint approach to the Tories, with the employers, for a registration scheme under which only registered firms would be awarded public-sector contracts.

The TUC construction industry committee has suggested that 10 p.c. wage-cut Workers at the crisis ridden BSA - Triumph - Norton -Villiers group are facing a dramatic cut in wages and big redundancies.

Shop stewards representing 2,000 workers at the Meriden plant heard of the shock report from management yesterday.

I understand the plans include:

An all-round 10-per-cent cut in wages. • Redundancies amounting to possibly one in five of the labour • Loss of ten minutes free time allowance in every hour for piece work and the introduction of time studies. • Abolition of the average earnings rule for untimed piece-work jobs. • The closure of No. 2 plant at Meriden and the transfer of the FUND workers, Oxford £1 Keep it rolling in—we're way behind target but determined to fight every inch of the way. Post all donations to:

Party Building Fund 186a, Clapham Hi gh Stı London SW4 7UG.

durirg the Shrewsbury a qualification for registration should be the employment of not less than a certain percentage of permanent workers, starting at 60 per cent.

Nowhere in the union leaders' proposals, of course, is there any demand for the nationalization of the building industry under workers' control. Yet 'the lump' is merely the most concentrated expression of the employers' attack, and nationalization is the only real answer to it.

Nationalization is also omitted from the policy statement agreed by the national. conference organized earlier this year mobilizauon or ine wole workby the "Building Workers' ing-class movement in action Charter', the Communist Party- which will force the Tories to led organization which has resign or make way for those in pushed itself to prominence in the unions who will fight. the campaign against 'the lump'. The alternative, revolutionary The Stalinists were forced, by leadership must be built in the the militant and increasingly building unions capable of meetpolitical mood of the rank and ing the challenge now facing the file, to agree to 'campaign for an members. spares department to the firm's Birmingham factory.

Management says these swingeing cuts are necessary to get BSA-Triumph out of its financial crisis by cutting costs by 10 per cent.

The company chairman and ex-Labour Attorney-General, Lord Shawcross, will visit Meriden today to discuss the proposals with convenors.

In the meantime workers will be meeting to decide whether to fight the plan which threatens to destroy wage levels and the hard-won basic trade union rights build up in the factory.

The firm is making the BSA labour force the scapegoats for the financial crisis which has hit the company. Gold fever not over THE PRICE of gold dropped in London yesterday, but dealers said the gold fever was far from over. The market, one said, was 'still very much alive and could today: Start kicking again later even Sater The morning fixing set the price at $103.50 an ouncedown $1.50 overnight, but still well above tha $100 mark. At one point earlier this week the London price reached $115 an ounce.

The weakness of the dollar was again in evidence yesterday: at Court Case end to this Tory and a return to a ment pledged to cies' But how this was to be achieved was left as vague as how 'the lump' is to be got rid of.

The way forward for building workers lies not in reformist illusions that the employers are going to help cut off their own Righer mend is goith to the worky ers any favours.

The union leaders must be told to drop their diversionary tactics, fight in the TUC for the whilinentina of administration Labour governsocialist poliBut already some workers are bitterly angry over the proposals.

They point out that the firm do tale days ersuk in four days work in four days to boost the company's performance.

Top management is hoping that the threat of closure will 'drive the workers to abandon their basic rights.

A similar strategy was employed at BSA Birmingham where men agreed to step up production to save jobs last year.

But despite the sacrifice management closed down the plant throwing 3,000 men out of work after a plan for a work-in had failed.

BSA-Triumph workers noW have no choice but to fight the proposals and demand the nationalization of the firm. Otherwise they will face the loss of all democratic rights. one point it lost 1.04} the pound.

Inter-bank deals done yesterday are settled on Monday and many financiers were reluctant to hold dollars over the weekend fearing they could be worth much less when the bill has to be paid.

STRIKE THREAT at the key Sterling Metalerdaant, Nematons averted yesterday when fettlers were reinstated, after dispute over a demand for relief SHIPY ARD stewards will be Boilermakers day today with Society officials in Newcastle to discuss the dismissal of 2,300 boilermakers over a bonus dispute at Harland and Wolff, Belfast. REYROLLES, Hebburn, piecevoted yesterday to contheir dispute over rates. Some 500 others have been laid off.

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