WOLFF AT WHITELAW'S DOOR

'Giving the toast "The King", the chairman said he did so with the mass feeling of loyalty and patriotism as was in the heart of every man worthy of the name of a Britisher. They could not but deplore the lamentable state of certain parts of this country where loyalty to the throne was a crime, but, thank God, in Ulster, the one bright gem of loyalty [applause], they loved and honoured their King [hear, hear]' The extract is from the 'Bel- our the agreements between fast Telegraph' of Tanuary management and the work1920. The speaker was Charles Payne a director of the Harland 'As it is, in the scramble for and Wolff shipyard and the productivity, all the agreerumbles of approval came from ments have been tossed aside.' the yard's employees at their Workers further point out annual dinner. that they already earn . £6 to Such rampant jingoism is not £12 less than their English and entirely characteristic of the Scottish counterparts. They 10,000 workers at Harland and would like to see a move toWolff today, but the yard is wards parity. still the bedrock of Protestant Hoppe defends himself with working-class privilege in Bel- two arguments. He says profast. The firm is the biggest ductivity targets have not been employer in Northern Ireland met and adds that the governand the jobs are filled almost ment would not allow extra exclusively with Protestants. bonuses because of the Phase Two pay law. 'This dispute Illusions, however, are being concerns the government's pay rudely disrupted. The workers at Harland and Wolff are be- laws and nothing else.' he ginning to find out after over three months of industrial On the parity issue, Hoppe also uses the Tory state conaction that when it comes to class war they are the same trol of wages to excuse his as any other worker in Great responsibility for any increase Britain. The Tories and the and indeed the Tory Chanemployers want to depress cellor Anthony Barber has their living standards and des- already outlawed any move towards parity. The governtroy their basic rights. In Belfast they seem ready to ment has also done nothing to close the yard and bankrupt settle the bonus issue. the city economy in the pro- But beneath this verbal sparring a much more serious cess. The men shouldering the attempt totally to undermine trade union strength in the runt of the attack are the yard's 2300 boilermakers yards is underway.

Harland's is a shipyard in who were sacked for insisting that productivity payments trouble. Last year losses on agreed in September 1971 are work-in progress amounted to honoured. They have been £6.78m and Hoppe says loss- ing in '19th century practices'.

making contracts wil not be kicked onto the streets without dole payment and if they cleared until 1975. is the last of the Mohicans in do not give in, management, 'They are refusing to face the represented by the Danish realities of the situation.' efficiency fanatic Iver Hoppe, TANKERS say they will boot out the Tory-employer attitudes. Mohifinishing trade workers and shut the yard gates on Belfast. The immediate future de- cans like Bobby Johnson and This 2,300 fellow trade unionThe dispute goes back to pends on six super-tankers the first rescue operation at the for the Island Fruit Reefer ists must destroyed vard. In the Tories and General Maritime Group. Tory Britain to save Harland's from further massive losses. brought in Hoope to put Even the ultra-optimistic H&W back in the black. 'Belfast Telegraph' is forced to Hoppe negotiated a deal with admit that this firm-which know that they must win this the yard labour force and pro- also has huge orders with a bonus of £2.50 Swan Hunter on the Tyne-is Other employers are fighting July 1972—rising to £3.50 in 'rather enigmatic'. In fact the the same war on the Clyde ships are being built 'on-spec' Boilermakers have seen with the hope that the vessels Tyne. The ultimate aim is to nothing of this money and in can be chartered. That deFebruary they added an over- pends entirely on the future time ban to their campaign of of world trade and with the non-co-operation with manage- chaos on the monetary markets ment plans. prospects are not bright.

Workers say they were led Nevertheless Hoppe ploughs must be broken first. to believe that the two sums on with crisis snapping at his were a minimum that could heels. His stated aim is to inbe expected in bonus pay- crease productivity by 100 per ments. They admit output has cent in two years. The govern- necessary because of the exnot gone up as expected, but ment owns almost half the this is primarily because of a yard and is paying for an exvast rebuilding and training pansion and rebuilding proscheme introduced by Hoppe. gramme with £35m in grants. the working class with a To take account of this. Both the Tories and Hoppe virulent imperialist ideology. unions negotiated a system of have identified the boilermakcontingency payments last ers as the enemy. year. The boilermakers are insist'Our contention is, boiler- ing on bonuses and will not makers' shop steward Bobby accept a new scheme of works Johnson told me, that the practice based on Measured money put at the disposal of Time Methods (MTM) without men like Carson. he company was for all con- negotiation. ingencies. One of these has The Dane recently pilloried been to introduce consultants the steel trade workers in a at £600 a week. We maintain letter to employees. He talked it should also be used to hon- of 'notorious' stewards indulg'What we are seeing here the Phase Two battle,' he said.

These sentiments sum up Hoppe and the government battle with the boilermakers.

at Swan Hunter's on the break down all pay and craft differentials and harness the Sandy Scott, the convenor of the schemes. But the boilermakers Tara seeing Belts satu treme political and economic a belief that union with the instability of the Six Counties British ruling class, through to stifle the independence of the Ulster Unionist Party, brought benefits and privileges.

This was partly based on Whereas in Britain the re- myth (the miserable conditions formists and compromisers of and wages of Protestant worthe Labour Party were sufficient kers are obvious to all visitors to hold back the political to Belfast) and partly based on development of the working fact (jobs and almost all the class, in Ulster the Tories need best jobs go to Protestantborn workers).

Carson, the Orange Order The class consciousness of and their political descendants the Protestant in Ulster is like Craig and Paisley have therefore cut across by a always attempted to instil the 'loyalist' ideology. But it is not Protestant working class with all King Billy and the Battle of the Boyne. There is the genuine feeling that the union brings better wages and relative One political result of this complex development is that Protestant workers tend to separate off the Tories in Westminster from the Tory government in Ulster. Tories in Westminster are bad because they are against the working class. But Tories in Ulster may, or may not, be bad depending on whether they are defending Protestant privilege, fighting Republicanism etc. factor was the degree ambiguity in it.

This could be dispelled, he added, and one way to do it was 'pay for a good job that was well done'.

But such fair play for workers, Protestant or otherwise, has no part in Tory policy. Their plan in Northern Ireland as in the rest of Britain, is to deprive workers of basic rights and break up the unions as free bargaining organizations. This is what Phase Two and Phase Three mean.

The Tory attempt to reconstruct a viable organization to capture the allegiance of the Protestant block in fact is disrupted continually by the economic crisis which lies directly behind the turmoil at Harland and Wolfi.

Ultimately Hoppe and the government rest for their salvation on the trade union bureaucracy. The hope is that boilermakers' president Dan McGarvey will snatch them from their uncomfortable and before the public.' The incident 'Unity' referred But this crisis offers the