'Defend jobs' strike calls

MUM OF NEEDS PUCH OR LOW PAID MORE coll MORE PAY/ on wages on lyne & Merser CALLS FOR strike action against unemployment have been issued this week by trades councils in two of Britain's so-called 'development' areas.

Jobless figures for this month, due out in seven days' time, are expected to show a further jump from the 605,843 August figure.

And in the NE the totals--like Merseyside's, already well above the national average—will be swelled if Vickers carries through its planned closure of Palmer's Hebburn ship-repair yard a fortnight from now.

Slicing through the welter of reformist 'left' talk, 'do good'-ing and saccharine sympathy aimed at burying such all-important issues, Tyneside's South Shields Trades Council has asked the NE Federation of Trades Councils to organize a one-day general protest strike in the area against the closure.

It links this with 'the absence of government plans to alleviate the entirely unacceptable unemployment level in the region'—now nearing the 70,000-mark.

ONE DAY STRIKE And at an unemployment conference sponsored by the Lancashire Federation of Trades Councils and eight Merseyside councils, delegates from Liverpool's Kirkby Trades Council are to demand the calling of a one-day strike and lobby of parliament.

— Industrial action, however, is unlikely to get even mention at this afternoon's meeting over Palmer's between Trades Union Congress general secretary Victor Feather and Tory Minister of Technology John Davies.

In fact Feather made clear yesterday that he would merely concentrate on telling the Minister about the effects of the closure.

Davies - a former Confederation of British Industry president-is, of course, very well aware of what the loss of 1,000 shipyard jobs means in an area like the Tyneside; the government's decision not to intervene at Palmer's is entirely consistent with its productivity-dealing attack on jobs and wages.

And earlier this week, a meeting took place at Glasgow's Upper Clyde Shipcompletely exposed the union leaders claims to be fighting this ttack through "pressure' on he government VOLUNTARY It was reported at a management meeting with outfitting tradesmen that of the finishing - trades workers suspended earlier this month pending talks on the MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21 The second of Two Trotsky Memorial Lectures "Trotsky's fight against revisionism' BEAVER HALL GARLICK HILL Near Mansion House tube Starts 8 p.m. Admission 28 (SLL national

future of their johs, 100 had already accepted 'voluntary' redundancy.

These jobs could have been saved.

Some 4,000 UCS finishingtheir wok mate face ol trades men cout jobs, were persuaded to return to work after only four hours when union officials announced that the management had agreed to negotiate.

So the possibility of winning an important skirmish in the fight against unemployment was abandoned by the Stalinistdominated local union leadership at UCS for hopes of a management change of heart— demoralizing those concerned and doing UCS's work for it.

At base, the same approach is evident in the Tyneside action committee's demand earlier this month that Davies publish the Commission on Industrial Relations' forthcoming inquiry report on shipbuilding as quickly as possible.

Union leaders-who recommend co-operation with the inquiry March 'because' according to the boilermakers Dan McGarvey, 'we are in the 12 months' election period'continue to foster illusions in it under the Tories!

JANUARY REPORT In fact, a CIR spokesman said yesterday, this report, scheduled for next month, has now been delayed until January.

But Tory policy is quite clear.

They intend to encourage the employers to defend their profits-unhindered by any consideration for the unemployed. (Vickers say they are closing Palmer's because they are not getting their usual 12 per cent per year from the yard.)

And they are using the alltoo-willing union leaders to help cover over this purpose.

As South Shields Trades Council secretary Jack Gasby said in announcing his council's strike call:

It is evident that local trade unionists have had a bellyful of unemployment.

'The Labour government took action and failed. The Tories do nothing at all.

'This is a response to the failure of the delegations that visited London inspired from the Minister Defence of the right to a job must become the club to break the Tories' back. The fight against unemployment begins in the factories.

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Adress. which is in dispute. From our Industrial correspondent The departments affected at Bristol will include the production office, jig and tool drawing offices, work-