POWER MEN MUST FIGHT LABOUR CUTS

MILITANT POWER station workers are pay talks between their union leaders and tricity Council tomorrow.

The lobbyers expect to be backed up by 24-hour stoppages at a number of stations. Workers at Coleshill, Fulham and Hams Hall have already decided to strike. More Clyde backing for B.P.

CLYDESIDE stewards of the Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers have been called together by the union's district committee today to discuss action in support of members sacked from the £65 million Grangemouth BP refinery site:

At least four sites in the area are already supporting the 500 sacked men.

The union's leaders have now decided to call out all members on sites where the nine Grangemouth employers have contracts.

The executive is also calling a conference of full-time officers early • next week to review the situation.

Strikers claim that members of the Electrical Trades Union, the Constructional Engineering Union and the Plumbing Trades Union have been approached by the contractors to do the work of the sacked men.

The "interchangeability of labour' agreement signed by all the unions on the site last year could conceivably cover this.

It is this agreement, they say, which prepared the ground for the sackings. On eve of salary talks Productivity trap ahead for ON THE EVE of the renewed meeting between education chiefs and the teachers' unions in the Burnham Committee over the claim for a £135-a-year interim salary increase, comes a call for more productivity and 'cost effectiveness' in education.

The call was made last weekend by employers' leader Sir William Alexander during a conference on 'The School and The Community' held at NUT headquarters in London under the auspices of the so-called 'Council for Educational Advance'.

Speaking on the same_ platform as Sir Edward Boyle, until recently Tory Shadow Minister for Education, Sir William said :

'You could get as good results (in education) as you are getting now and save £400 million a year.' Cuts His most relevant remarks came at the end of a long eulogy of the British of compromise powers of the central government and the freedom of educational institutions.

Several stations have already been banning overtime and working to rule since Monday in support of their demands for a 20 per cent increase in wages, an extra week's holiday and more pay for shift-work.

Leaders of the four main ower station unions are loping that the Electricits Council will increase last month's offer of a 6 per cent rise, which they rejected, in order to prevent further industrial action.

They have been making noises about an official strike if the offer is not pushed up to 15 per cent.

Sales up

cath on past here bace their -honed a prodi di Some 600 ast year's 5 per cent i BEAN ease for power station w paid on she basis i cent.

than face wat ampuny more amount are sera only ari is a ever.

At Hams Hall, where a loca 'B' stations. The °A" station i to be shut down.

Unprincipled for higher wages on the basis of jobs lost. No trade unionist can accept this unprincipled approach.

Power station workers must fight for their 20 percent increase without strings. shall be made.

'There is no possibility at all of the rate of increase in educational expenditure of the last ten years continuing in the next ten years-none whatsoever.

'In 1945 educational expenditure stood at £155 million or 1 per cent of the Gross National Product. In 1969 at £2,200 million it was 6 per cent of the GNP. • Unless the wealth of the nation increases at a rate far greater than it is at the moment, we cannot expect a similar rate of increase in educational expenditure.

'It must remain within the limit of the nation's resources and manpower. This is the problem of the next three or four years.

'I don't believe this nation would sacrifice the health and other services for the sake of Constant Sir William complained that since the war . • the increase in productivity has remained constant at 4 per cent. Why has the vastly increased expenditure not had the impact on productivity we had hoped? pay rise.

moves from women workers at one plant at the end of last week, pickets report that their week-old strike is now completely solid.

mittee of the Amalgamated secule to back he sions Engineers a n d led by 700 electrical workers -men and women-from the largest of Plessey's three Wigan plants.

TURNED DOWN turned damante tivity deal.

12s. 6d.

6a. women, 5s. for juveniles.

raise this-but only by 2s.

unions involved-the AEF and he Electrical Trades Unionre demanding the closing o the gap between women's and men's rates.

Wigan labour force is women.

LOWEST

CERE those at Wigan.

Firemen told Press afterwards this as a move London claim allowance.

No intention Callaghan — who was prepared to move troops into the ire stations yesterday morning-clearly has no intention of negotiating with the fireNo amount of cross-table pressure is going to change his mind.

Only the firemen's • own strength-allied to a campaign for support from other sections of trade unionists—can win their claim.

ty tray Because there has been too much emphasis on knowledge and skill and not enough on attitudes and values' (My emphasis.)

Sixth forms, he claimed, were 'not economically viable'.

He supported the plan for sixth-form colleges.

This would mean abolition of sixth forms in the comprehensive schools and creaming off the specialist teachers.

Such a scheme would certainly ensure that there would be no emphasis on knowledge and skill!

Sir William then explained what he meant by 'attitudes and values'.

His new offices were built and 'cost £50,000 more than it needed because of attitudes and valúes of those building it' Laziness Teachers can be forgiven if they interpret this remark as implying laziness on their Is it Sir William's aim to ensure that teachers work harder to save money for the Ministry of Education? Will he put productivity proposals o the teachers' unions as part of a deal on the interim salary claim?

Sir William continued in reply to discussion that economies in higher education could enable savings to be to lobby the ElecPLESSEY, WIGAN Strikers want official support WIGAN'S 1,200 Plessey strikers met yesterday to consider the next steps in their fight for a 30s. interim Despite return - to - work The Wigan district comLast Tuesday's walk-out was Interim increases would have The management agreed to Besides a 30s. increase, the The majority of Plessey's Stewards claim that Plessey the Workers that they saw to block the for a rent strial corre From a special correspondent But pay is only one of the issues at stake here.

Workers must be on their guard against the 'strings' attached to the forthcoming productivity scheme. ITALIAN STRIKES -THE POPE SPEAKS AUL took a hand in the class struggle on 1 POPE P. ful effect the current Italian strike wave the harn involved in the disputes.

Could His Holiness be referring to the Vatican's recently acquired interest in Fiat?

When the Lancia car firm ran into difficulties, the Vatican began to buy up its shares at bargain prices, distributing them to the upper clergy for personal use.

When the Fiat bid Lancia became known, Vatican emerged, with BATTERY DEAL TWO giants of the electrical industry-Philips and Matsushita of Japan — have announced plans to create a joint dry cell battery subsidiary company.

The deal is subject to Belgian government approval, Philips and Matsushita are listed 32nd and 70th respectively in the scale of the world's largest industrial concerns.

This is the third deal between electrical giants within the last few days. teachers switched to 'deprived' areas.

In a tranparent attempt to divide higher and secondary teachers from those in primary schools he said that in 1945 45 per cent of educational expenditure went on the primary sector and 28 per cent on secondary.

By 1969 50 per cent went on further and higher education and only 25 per cent on primary and secondary respectively.

'We simply cannot afford the existing staffing ratios, he said.

Iceberg tip

The needs of 'the nation' featured largely in Sir William's tentative proposals for economies.

Clearly these are only the tip of the iceberg. The education authorities are not showing their full hand.

"When I addressed 1,500 students in Sheffield only 100 of them were from Sheffield. And yet hundreds of Sheffield students leave there on Sunday nights to go to other parts of the country. World tours are all right but ...

'More cost effectiveness is needed in universities. Do we really need to provide resiTHE EMPLOYERS had not responded to the process of improving industrial relations as the trade unions were trying to do, Mr Jack Jones is reported to have told a rally of trade unionists in Sheffield on Sunday. The report, which inevitably made headline news in Monday's 'Morning Star', featured Jones' comment that the revolt of the lowerpaid was justified.

But Jones, general secretary the Transport and General Workers' Union, was at a loss to explain how the union's efforts to Lancia.

All this was known Agnelli of Fiat.

Approval sought

It is thought in Italy that one of Fiat's main motives for taking over the debt-ridden Lancia firm is Agnelli's desire to win Vatican approval for his new tough anti-labour policy.

Pope Paul's attacks on strikers and their harmful effects on those not directly involved (i.e., shareholders) suggests that Agnelli's investment is already paying dividends.

This direct Vatican intervention on the side of the employers should help to educate Italian workers still under the influence of the Church on the class role of religion, and also expose to rank - and - file Communist Party workers the reactionary nature of the Stalinists' 'dialogue' with the Vatican-now big business partners with Agnelli in the exploitation of the Fiat workers. dence? We should put universities in the main centre of population and not way out.

I personally have the teeling that the 1944 Education Act put an over-emphasis on the rights of the individuals. Freedom of the individual must be balanced against the nation's needs.

'Those with two "A" levels had the right to study whatever they wanted. But suppose they all decided on social sciences.

'We need a structure of differentiated needs. Tuition fees would dissuade people from taking subjects the nation does not need. For other subjects there would be no fees.' It is clear from Sir William's remarks that "instant militancy' confined narrowly to the salary. claim is the kiss of death for the teachers.

To win the pay struggle the teachers must have a socialist alternative policy for education to answer the economy cuts of the Wilson government.

The NUT leaders will otherwise settle for a shabby productivity deal opening the way for new attacks on teachers' conditions.

"improve industrial tions' had aided the paid workers.

RISES WON

In fact, of course, lower-paid workers have won wage rises only when they have fought not only the employers, but the government and the union leaderships as well.

In Jones's view, the role of shop stewards is to 'tackle injustice on the shop floor'. This, he said, helped to prevent strikes.

His attempts to reconcile the TUC's strike-breaking efforts (The process of improving industrial relahen he spoke out against g on those not directly From our own reporter ENCOURAGED by the determined stand of local dustmen, maintenance fitters at Bristol Corporation's Albert Road depot stopped work last Monday in protest against a new incentive bonus system.

Described by the men as a 'slaves' charter', would mean big productivity increases with only a few pence to show for it.

The Albert Road men have replied by demanding a basic 1ls.-an-hour rate with no strings attached in order to meet the erosion of wages which has occurred since a number of bonus schemes began to be introduced five years ago.

The stand resulted in union officials representing Corporation craftsmen calling a meeting to discuss a £3 a week rise for all workers.

The Corporation has made a derisory interim 25s. offer in order to stave off growing discontent, but a meeting at the Corn Exchange decided unanimously to press for the full amount. tions') with demagogic statements in favour lower-paid workers are entirely to the liking of the 'Morning, Star', which is desperately trying to cover up for the left' in the unions. ven more significant than Jones's remarks were those of Hugh Scanion, AEF president. He told the same rally that 'there is a fundamental conflict between capital and labour and the sooner this is recognised the better'.

WON'T ACT

Scanlon did not reveal how he arrived at this conclusion, but it appears highly unlikely that he will act on it.

Instead, he went on to state that this should not be • interpreted to mean trade unions and employers had always to be at each other's throats. 'But it does mean an increasingly hard battle and struggle to reach agree• should be kept, once made Perhaps Scanlon was referring to the infamous engineering agreement signed a year ago, in which the employers were given the go-ahead to introduce workstudy, job evaluation and Measured-Day Work.

Or perhaps he meant the Ford deal of 1969, with its penalties for strikers.

Whichever deals he meant, it is increasingly obvious that the Jones- Scanlon 'left' demagogy can be quite happily combined with TUC policy and with Wilson's aims in the unions—to get binding agreements which the unions will enforce, whatever the pay level of the workers involved. le 'Morning Star', which comments editorially that Fortunately trade unionists sounding the alarm already and Left MPs are Wilson's plans for the unions, is trying once again to head off any development of alternative revolutionary leadership in the unions.

This threadbare manoeuvre fools fewer people every time it is tried.