OF DEVLIN PHASE TWO ON

and to cut down on the number of port workers is the drive for 'competition between ports'.

Dockers are expected to win trade from other ports by out-doing their fellow workers in tonnage handled, in shifts worked and in acceptance of lower manning. levels, cuts in rest breaks and so on.

DYING

Naturally, the employers are well pleased when union representatives sing the same tune. 'Now a union leader says it' is the comment of a recent issue of the 'independent' dock paper "The Port', over a statement by Tom Roffey, a Transport and General Workers' Union official.

Merseyside workers rightly • FROM PAGE ONE affair. out their undertaking to the Less than 25 people took Prime Minister. part. None of the trade union Nevertheless much can be leaders , who dominated the learned about the depths to debate were prepared to opposed by A.E.F.

transport workers workers-claim that the man- All the unions at the works, agament has done this many except the National Union of times before and has deliber- Railwaymen (NUR), support ately refrained from hiring the AEF fitters and agree that new fitters in order to keep semi-skilled workers in the the skilled men in this posi- railway works, because of the tion. repetitive character of the All-round support ence to be made up to skilled The management's real aim, fitters after five years' workto establish full mobility of The men are continuing labour between skilled and their strike to win the prinunskilled jobs in order to ciple that skilled men should weaken union organization in be taken on to fill skilled the works. vacancies.

The article, headed Act Together to Regain Lost Trade', begins :

'Our river, to which we owe so much, is dying. How tragic it would be to feel that those of us who have been so closely connected with it should be guilty in one way or another of contributing to this 'Dying' is the word for it.

15 ships hit by strike A SEVEN-DAY-OLD strike of 140 tugmen held up 15 ships on the Manchester Ship Canal on Monday.

The men, whose unofficial swere to meet on Tuesiay te, Runcorn.

Hackney

dustmens' strike spreads ABOUT 150 dustmen from the London borough of Islington struck work on Monday in support of the 200 Hackney dustmen who have been on strike since last Tuesday.

The Islington strike followed a unanimous decision at a meeting last Thursday to strike if the council refused to reply to their demand for a £4 10s. pay rise.

The present basic rate is £15 9s.-the men want £20.

One striker, married with two children said :

It's almost impossible to make ends meet. We do the same work as the Lambeth dustmen and they get £25 basic. We are determined to stay on strike until we get the money' Rubbish has been piling up in Hackney since the strike began, particularly in the area around the Ridley Road market.

The Ridley Road heap is now more than ten feet high.

Attempts by the council to remove rubbish heaps in lorries 'in the interest of health and welfare' failed when pickets induced the drivers to drive away. LABOUR 'LEFTS' RETREAT swing the full force of the work, get insufficient experiing with the tools.

stematically Killere being the employers.

Roffey continues:

'While we can accept that Rome was not built in a day, we can also accept that it was built. Should we not therefore turn our attention to estab. lishing a system Such toastemase Teen referred to as Devlin"?

The latest factor in this "building' process is the proosal to close the Surrey Docks, London.

EMPHASIS

Roffey also thinks that 'too much emphasis' being laced or severance. hardship, he mainly due to loss of trade from 'our and this is where his point on collaboration comes " My view is that both sides of the industry sho lost work cerned in regaining lost and making every endeavour employed, will continue to be to obtain new work in order He adds further :

'Away must soever, other lose the of the Port of Lothe workers berphs, the collaboration ine But with the new employers are interested in is the main any eat to available.

CLOSING

In the old docks it is just a question of closing down quickly as possible, without trouble.

It is these proposals for extensive exploitation and sackings that the dockers have helped to stave off with bans and protective practices The one •employers worr that port lave i that dockers may forge vital links between docks and ports to act as a united body.

Roffey puts his position:

'Any committee of stewards should within the firm where elections took place, not outside it. The consequences of any other organization of shop stewards cannot anything but harm and can only result in the usurping of the authority of branches' officially eleccommittees and union LONG-TERM In fact, the harder the dockers work 'to regain lost trade' and the sooner that links between dock workers are broken, then the sooner will the employers arrive at their long-term aim of getting 90 per cent of the workers ofi Devlin Phase Two prepares the way for shift work, powers of hire-and-fire for the employers, cuts in manning and the introduction of workstudy and Measured-Day Work systems, as well as closures.

If the dockers are to defeat the plans of the employers united fight of all port workers is needed for a policy of nationalization of the docks under workers' control, and for an alternative leadership in the trade unions which will lead a struggle against the employers and which will fight for a socialist policy on the docks.

TUC's Portsmouth majority for repeal of the Prices and Incomes Act against the government's insistence on maintaining the anti-union And no one, of course, mentioned the anti-strike provisions of the TUC's 'Pro. gramme for Action' trelf.

Summing up for the executive, Mrs. Barbara Castle was able to STRESS that the government had heard nothing to change its mind about the necessity for reactivating part ACCEPT composite 26 echoing 'the pledge "Programme for Action" that every effort should be made to reduce the number of stoppages of work'.

She was particularly glad that trade union leaders were to get together with the employers to sort out what she described as 'the present chaos' in the motor industry.

Car workers look out!