Queenies' women want guaranteed

A GROUP of Merseyside women workers are on strike at Kroft Seafoods because they claim they have no security of employment or any fixed weekly wage.

Kroft export 'Queenies, a type of shellfish, America. The 150 women, taken on when the factory opened last September, were promised 40 hours' regular work a week.

But employment has turned out to be extremely haphazard and the strike broke out when the number of hours worked a week dropped to one or two.

'Sometimes we used to start work at 8 a.m. and have to go home at 10 a.m., shop steward Marion Smith said on the picket line yesterday.

'Some girls used to spend 40p on bus fares only to find there was no work when they Food prices up again as CBI warns of pay freeze TWENTY-ONE companies have been given peri sion to raise prices by the Price Commission this w in one of the longest lists so far released. Some creases will be as high as 20 per cent. Seven of companies are food manufacturers.

Kraft Margarine goes up 7.2 per cent. Findus Frozen Foods will go up. So will biscuits and confectionery products manufactured by Associated Biscuits. Beecham's PLJ lemon juice will go up 9 per cent.

Animal feeding stuffs manufactured by Beecham Agricultural Products go up, in some cases by 13 per fent. This is certain to lead to dearer meat, particularly pork and poultry.

Mars confectionery will go up by more than 9 per cent. Mars Bars will cost fp more and be 5 per cent smaller. Corona soft drinks will rise by up to lp per bottle.

OFFICIAL

The increase on sweets and drinks is the first significant and officially-sanctioned inroad on the much-vaunted 'price cuts' introduced in Barber's budget.

Carrington Viyella has been SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE MEETING BLACKBURN 'The Peel Hotel' (Town Centre)

Monday June 25, 8 (Please note date cl Bl 'Bulld the Revolutionary SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETING Preston Friday June 22, 8 p.m. The Windsor Castle Egan Street 'Build the revolutionary Registered as a newspaper. at the Post Office, Published by Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, 7UG. Printed Plough Newsdesk: 01-720 2000.

01-622 7029. turned Kroft and the other firms around the Netherley area of Liverpool have set up recently with government grants. They employ mainly women.

The women are demanding a guaranteed 35-hour week at their present 35p hourly rate of pay.

*Even this is a very low wage by today's standards, said Mrs Smith. 'We are basically striking for regular employment. This is essential with the high rents and the rising cost of living.' The strikers have been backed by the General Workers and Municipal Workers Union and are receiving donations from other workers as well as strike pay. Work in the plant is at a standstill due to a black of Kroft's Seafood products throughout Merseyside. Women at Kroft Seafood picket line.

niseek ingiven the go-ahead for further advances (the shirts will cost 2 per cent more) and so has Yardley, the cosmetic manufacturers.

Reed Paper and Board is to put up prices of all its paper and board products, except newsprint, by 8.3 per cent. This is in addition to 7-per-cent rises granted under Phase One.

Both Reed and Bowaters are applying to put up newsprint prices again-only last month they were given permission for one such increase.

The state-owned Freight-liners transport company has been permitted to raise its charges by 5.5 per cent.

zay TAL ON i ought Phase Three warning.

Five Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds subsidiaries - Firth Cleveland Sintered Products, Pneumatic Automatic Control Equipment, Exors of James Mill, Special Products and Standard Bolt and Nut-will increase their prices between 2.5 and 9.4 per cent.

The Unilever subsidiary, Synthetic Resins, will raise its prices 9.5 per cent.

The Jeyes Group can raise the price of its disinfectants, washingup fluids and bleach. Jeyes Fluid can go up 20 per cent.

Prestige non-electric carpet sweepers will go up, and so will products of Glacier Metals and Sun Printers.

Meanwhile, as more and more upward leaps in the cost of living are announced, the bosses have demanded strict state pay laws, unrestricted profits and no free wage negotiations.

It was vital, the Confederation of British Industries claimed after seeing premier Edward Heath on Monday, that profits should be maintained 'at a high enough level to sustain investment'.

RESTRICTIONS

But Phase Two of the state pay laws would have to be followed by 'continuing and possibly severe restrictions' on the real incomes of the working class, said • CBI Director-General Mr Campbell Adamson.

Economic growth, according to the bosses, involves cuts in consumption, and wage increases might have to be lower than the £l plus 4 per cent permitted under Phase Two.

Unless the unions and the public were made aware that the end of Phase Two would not mean a substantial relaxation of state control of wages then, Campbell Adamson said, later discussions would reach an 'unpleasant situation'.

SOCIALIST LABOUF

LEAGUE LECTURE!

Liverpool

given by Peter Jeffries Sunday June 24 Trade Unions and polit struggle in Britain Sunday July ¡hartism, yesterday and Sunday July 15 The Revolutionary Party and the British working class Stanley Halls Parliament Strei

SOCIALIST LABOU

LEAGUE LECTURE Barnsley Given by Gerry Healy National Secretary Sunday June 24 Dialectical Materialism— arxist theory of knowled Sunday July 8 Theory and Practice Marxism Sunday July 15 Role of the The Red Lion Worsborough Near Barnsley 7.30 p.m.

lectures given by Cliff Slaughter (SLL Central Committee) The Soclalist Revolution Britain: 2. The roots of capitalist crisis: Marxism and the contradictions of capitalism. Britain and the world crisis.

The state and revolution. Reformism and revolution in Britain. The fight for democratic rights today means preparing for working-class power.

Sundays June 24, July 8 Stockingfarm Community Centre, Stockingfarm 7.30 p.m.

SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE LECTURES Manchester given by Peter Jeffries Sunday June 24 Trade Unions and political struggle in Britain Sunday July hartism, yesterday and Sunday July 15 The Revolutionary Party and the British working class Black Lion lackfriars St/Chapel friars St/Chi ear Salford Bus Stati Salford Bus !

7.30 p.m.