Mechanize Smithfield, say Prices and Incomes Board

If this crime goes unpunished, it must be concluded that political assassination continues to be a means of governing. Sir, As country obliged My was in examining wages and conditions at Smithfield Meat Market, the Prices and Incomes Board has conducted an inquiry into how large sections of the labour force could be eliminated altogether.

Of course, the PIB's report (Smithfield Market, HMSO, 8s. 6d.) does not admit to doing this in so many words.

It simply describes methods of manhandling carcasses and recommends instead the introduction of modern mechanized methods of moving meat.

But, as explained in Workers Press «". Oc'ober 14, this can only amount to a big attack on the Smithfield workers.

Detail The report gives in some detail the work done in the market:

"The vehicles delivering meat park at delivery bays around the market where the meat is handled in the first place by workers known as 'pullers-back'.

"The pullers-back work inside the vehicles and pull the meat back to the tail-board ...the meat is taken from the tail-board of the vehicle to the stall of a market tenant by gangs of workers known as 'pitchers' 'The meat is then carried by hand or in trucks. Contrary to whai might be expected, the heavier items are often carried. Long sides of beef weighing up to 400 Ibs are carried on the shoulders of two pitchers who move it at a The assassination of a Trotskvist leader Camacho's arrest.

Isaac Camacho is mourned by his aged two small children. it is a certainty that you are going to rapidly, under the guise of a man of the to address this open letter to you. brother and comrade, Isaac Comacho, w! not selling himself to anyone, staying brisk pace known as the "Smithfield shuffle".

'On arrival at the stall, these long sides are usually "pitched" on to hooks hanging from the stall rzils. When meat is unloaded by regular pitchers, it is checked on arrival at the stall by permanent employees of the firm employing the pitchers, known as "checkers"

"Then, at the stalls, meat is handled by regular employees of the tenants who are collectively known as shopmen.' Shopmen There are 1,021 shopmen in the market who carry out a variety of jobs; 'nightmen' who take in, check and record supplies into stalls, select and sort stocks and arrange for display; 'humpers' who move meat about the stalls for display purposes and for cutting; 'cutters' who cut the meat as required by the purchasers; scalesmen' who weigh the meat, 'deliverymen' who handle the meat after cutting and weighing and who give it to the buyers' porter; 'trainees', those aged 18 and over serving a 13 weeks' probationary period before getting full Guillermo Lora, General Secretary of the Workers' Revolutionary Bolivia (Trotskyist).

leave the left, I feel rates as humpers, 'offal boys', 'The unions have told us youth between 16 and learning the trade.

At 18 they are paid at full rates for the job they are doing. rates. They realize that if Recommended The report recommends that many • of the modern methods used at Les Halles market in Paris could be used at Smithfield.

Unloading would be done by fork-lift trucks instead of by hand and carcasses would be transferred to hooks hanging on a powered rail system for movement to stalls and between stalls, any further movement again to be done by fork-lift trucks.

The paper work at present done by office workers could be done by computer.

As well as modernization, the Prices and Incomes Board would like to see:

'A streamlined and flexible labour force adapted to the expected needs of the market over the next ten years or so' What is needed, it says, is the flexibility of hours and interchangeability of different grades.

It adds:

For me, for my Party and letter, you were directly respon of Camacho in as much as y contrary. that they are strongly in favour of the introduction of incentive schemes for shopmen, who are at present on time such schemes are introduced there would almost certainly be a contraction in the labour In our study of the market we have been impressed by the speeds and skills of certain cutters, but, except for the use of bandsaws to cut frozen lambs and some cuts of frozen beef, all cutting is done by hand.

"The use of power-driven saws could eliminate much tiring work and would certainly speed up cutting delays which at the present time impede deliveries after purhase.' Unknown On this it adds that Swedish markets use electric knives, which are unknown in Smithhield. The PIB realizes that the changes advocated would require a change in the organization of the employers.

It notes that:

'In Paris, the initiative for market tenants, under energetic leadership, which operates the mechanical aids as a single company?

After these recommendations comes what might appear to be rather an odd, section which discusses how much more profitable the land covered by Smithfield might be if used for office developBroad hint Although the report does not openly advocate that Smithfield be closed down and a meat market be set up outside London, it appears that the PIB, while treading warily, is giving a broad hint in this direction.

The reason for this might be that the PIB knows that under the existing set-up of small tenancies and individual firms, placed in Central London, with its awkward streets and difficult parking, that it would be possible to attempt only limited modernization to the level it has described.

However, with the closing of Smithfield and the building of completely new premises on an open site, the most modern full automation techniques could be operated with total computer control and perhaps with all the market housed in one factorywarehouse.

Those workers who were still required would operate on a principle very similar to motor car production lines.

Careful Also, methods of conveyerbelt handling, as developed at B. shed, Victoria dock, as well as modern refrigeratorcontainer methods could put even the Paris meat market out of date.

Perhaps the report treads carefully because the PIB knows that to go this far would close down most of the existing meat firms.

At any rate, the PIB recommends that the City of London, as the market's authority, should assume the leading responsibility for the planning and execution of a large-scale, integrated programme, covering the use of labour, machinery, and transport, framed in the light of future requirements.

On earnings, the report calls for:

A market-wide agreement for carriers' porters; A strengthening of the meat shopmen's agreement, including provision for greater inter - changeability and revision of the pay structure: 3 Il mproved tl he self-em regula ar collectir on earning Thi e last line repor t states:

UNDER the pretext of re ulation of plc yed by the in of informa'To achieve an improved pay structure the union will need to accept some further contraction in the labour Also mentioned is the possible use of work-study in change appears to have come largely from an association of the shops, though' no details are given.

The Prices and Incomes Board spearheads an attack on the working class on behalf of the British capitalist class.

Jobs and men, past traditions and years of service are swept aside to make way for new methods of profit-making.

Brilliant inventions and scientific achievements which

would ease the load and take the drudgery out of work are converted instead into measures for displacing the worker altogether.

What the Smithfield men are facing is an extension of the Devlin scheme on the docks.

The Smithfield workers must link their struggles with those of the dockers against the government's rationalization and cut-back plans for the industry.

Only the nationalization of all the major means of collection and distribution of goods and materials under direct control of the workers can ensure that modernization will be used for the benefit of those workers involved.