Productivity danger in Ferodo strike Picket doubled as lorries break line

gas striki in third BIRMINGHAM gas maintenance workers have now entered their third week of strike action.

The strike involves the whole of the W Midlands and is in support of a £20 basic for labourers and a 25 per cent incentive guarantee for men not on incentive bonusboth demands are without strings.

Coventry strike committee chairman told Workers Press:

'We are supporting Birmingham in their struggle. We are demanding £20 minimum for the lowest-paid worker.' Strikers complained that the gas board is employing outside contractors to do their jobs on the pretext that it is 'emergency work'.

Pickets said General and Municipal Workers' Union leaders were sympathetic towards the claim, but had refused to make it official.

ALL TRADES MEETINGS READING: Thursday, September 24, 8 p.m. Palmer Hall, West St. •No to productivity! Full support for Pilkington workers! Force the Tories to resign!' Speaker: Tony Richardson, ATUA National Committee member.

September 24, 8 p.m. George Ill, "No to ington workers! Force the Tories to resign!' Speaker: Bernard Franks. SWINDON: Sunday, September 27, employment and l. Tories. Speaker: Thornett, leading Oxford carworkers' steward. WELLINGTON: Monday, September 28,7.30 p.m. YMC/iSpeed-up Buildings, Walker St.

unemployment - The GKNSankey and Pilkington disputes'. tember 28. London: Monday, September Street. w.3 Hall, Acton High Street, 'Pilkington's: The Tory. attack on jobs, wages and the unions.' New US ' smog laws Washington, Wednesday-The US Senate yesterday unanimously approved a tough clean air law requiring manufacturers to build anti-smog cars within six years and to prevent factories from discharging pollutants into the water and air.

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CONCILIATION 'IN COLD BY A WORKERS PRESS CORRESPONDENT THE PICKET line at the Ferodo brake company's Chapel-en-le-Frith Derbyshire factory has had to be doubled up because more lorries are taking semi-finished goods from the plant.

Several pickets allege that they have been narrowly missed being run over by truckssome driven by non-union drivers.

There are fears that even picketing up to 10 p.m. may be inadequate.

The 250 strikers, who have been out for eight weeks, are angry over the Ministry of Social Security being drawn into the strike.

SWEET

JOBS GO TO HULL ABOUT 250 workers at Batger, the Clapham sweets hrm in s London, are to lose their jobs following a takeover by a Hull company.

Needler's, the new owners, will sell the Clapham plant as soon as production ends.

Many of the women workers who have families are unable to move to Hull to take up jobs offered there.

IT BEI i'm Dentin FIREMEN'S ACTION DOGGED BY 'INQUIRY CALL Demands for an increase in basic pay and a shortening of working hours are to backed next week by a seven-day 'emergency" calls only' action from Britain's 30,000 firemen.

But leaders of the Fire Brigades Union yesterday tied these demands to a call for the Tory government to set up an independent tribunal to inquire into the fire service.

And they are attempting to persuade firemen in London and Essex to call off their present pay struggle in favour of next week's action.

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The transport union at Ferodo's has refused support for the strike and said that if members who are still working become involved it would affect the social security payments to 1,000 T&GWU production workers who have been laid off.

Two hundred and fifty members of the engineering, electrical, sheetmetalworkers' and building trade unions are out on official strike for a £10 wage increase, while another 1,000 have been laid off at the factory.

The strike is being supported by 60 skilled men at the company's Caernarvon plant.

The present flat weekly wage at the plant-taken together with a f2 rise offered in June-is £26 12s.

The firm's offer turned down last Friday was for £2 4s to £5 15s more.

The strikers have twice overwhelmingly rejected com. pany offers linked to productivity terms - the second time after Department of Employment and Productivity intervention.

Many have not yet received strike pay. But there are dangers in front.

Promises

Union officials - including leading Communist Party member John Tocher-appear to be willing to accept modified productivity terms if the company will agree to abide by earlier promises outlined in their letters to strikers at the end of last month.

All of these proposals were based on work study, Measured-Day Work and jobevaluation.

The strike is in grave danger because union officials pose the question of 'getting as much as possible' out of these productivity schemes.

Strikers explain that if management gets its way, the schemes would mean a minimum "fall-back' pay of £2532s less than the current wage including the July increase!

FRIDGEMEN CONTINUE FIGHT WORKERS at Sterne's refrigerator factory at Woodside, Glasgow, yesterday decided to continue their strike against the plant's threatened closure.

A shut-down of this BritishLeyland subsidiary means the sack for over 400 workers.

The strike, which was called last Friday, has AEF District Committee backing and over 50 Glasgow factories have pledged financial and moral support.

Workers at Sterne's Hillingdon plant are holding a meeting this week to discuss solidarity action.

Wharf blast

A CONTRACTOR went about demolishing 100 oil tanks 'like a bull in a china shop', while 'safety precautions took a back seat', a Home Office report into the Dudgeon's Wharf explosion said yesterday.

Five firemen and a workman were killed in July last year when an explosion ripped open a turpentine tank on which they were standing.

The report says that the site owners, ABCO Petroleum Ltd, Firemen from Essex lobbying yesterday Fire Union delegate conference over the national and their local 'emergency-calls-only' action.

• See page one story and Late News I WAGES OR LADS THIS ONT!

LOW DON *TON MEN OUT AMILIES WITHOUT MONEY Brigades FB.U!

VIRSUS' So rever 'Burning sixth day, thousands of our people are under the debris. Bodies have rotted. Hunger and thirst are killing our remaining children, women and old men. A sea of blood and 20,000 killed and injured from them . . , separate US Until yesterday, the 'Morning Star' had desperately triec to depict Husséin as a man wanting peace with the guerrillas !

And only last Monday, an editorial called on the King's Tory allies 'to oppose any intervention in Jordan before it is too late' Now, cynically adapting to the growing feeling of support for the guerrillas, the 'Star' commented yesterday:

'The stories of death and destruction now [sic!] beginning to come out of Amman show what a crime has been committed against the Arab cause by King Hussein and his The 'crime' began two months ago, when, with the full support of the Kremlin, Nasser and Hussein accepted the so-called 'peace proposals' of US State Secretary Rogers.

Stalinist calls 'for the Britaish Labour and Peace [!?] movements to speak out now' are carefully designed to cover the trail of those very Communist Party leaders who hailed the 'ceasefire' agreement in the first place.

Hussein's forces have been released to fight the guerrillas.

That is the outcome of the deal.

Bitter fruit

The massacres in the refugee camps are the bitter, bloody fruit of the Gromyko-NasserRogers plan to strangle the Arab Revolution.

The aim was the crushing of the Palestinian liberation movement.

And, but for the heroism and revolutionary audacity of the most radical guerrilla leaders, they would have done The Palestinians, whose struggle of the last week has been an inspiration to antiSPANISH TRIAL THE SPANISH Cortes (parliament) has lifted the parliamentary immunity of Navarro Rubio, ex-head of the Spanish central bank and previously Finance Minister in the fascist regime.

He will now face charges, along with other ex-Ministers Espinosa and Monco, in connection with the Matesa affair, involving the mishandling of tens of millions of pounds of government subsidies.

His is likely to be the last sacrificial head to roll.

Not charged Other ministers who were at one time rumoured to be involved, including Foreign Minister Lopez Bravo, leading figure in negotiating closer relations between the Franco regime and the Stalinist governments of E Europe, will probably not now be charged.

YUGOSLAVIA 1969-1970.

While 'economics' was not on the agenda, the problems facing British capitalism were present in their effects on the work of the Council - now the main source of research funds for university Says the report:

'The last five years have covered a period of financial stringency leading to a sharp fall in the growth rate of the SRC budget and, partly owing to devaluation, an increase in the proportion of the budget devoted to international activities ..

'The steady development of selectivity and concentration is a cardinal feature of Coun cil policy ..? (p. 2.)

SRC Chairman Professor Sir Brian Flowers expressed fears that such restrictions could lead to 'severe handicaps' in