Tories make Rolls' pay strike a test case

-now in its seventh week.

If they accept the talks move, they will do so without enthusiasm. For a sizeable majority of both stewards and rank-and-file workers now appear convinced that the Tory-appointed board of Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd has dug in for a long fight.

'What's there to talk about?' Jim Witt, a young engineers' - union essed after an overwhelming, vote to stay out at last Friday's mass meeting.

'All we've had so far is deadlock, deadlock, deadlock—no, maybe, no, no.

'You can't expect anything FINANCIAL support for the Bristol strikers, who are now officially backed by their unions, has started to come in in earnest.

Rolls workers have sent £500 from Parkside in Coventry, and £137 from Leavesden. Bristol Post Office workers collected £100.

Donations can be sent to:

Bob Underwood I1 Greendown Troopers Hill St George Bristol 5.

else. The people who appointed our directors are the people who pushed through Relations Act • Industrial For strikers like Jim, the reports of union officials Ernie Brown and Vic Ryan to Friday's meeting proved the Tories' involvement in the dispute.

Brown described how in talks lasting until 2 a.m. eight days ago, local management had dropped the chief obstacle to an agreement: a clause that 50p of its £1.50 offer must be offset against whatever rise is agreed next year engineering nationally.

He went on to report that the following day the Rolls directors had instructed its local men to reinstate the AN APPEAL TO ALL OUR READERS:

Ask your Public Library to take a copy of Workers Press We would like to ask all our readers to help us expand the circulation of Workers Press. One thing you all can do isask your Public Library to take a copy each day. All requests Circulation Department 186a Clapham High Street • London, SW4.

Telephone: 01-622 7029

ISRAELI chief of staff Lt-Gen Haim Bar-Lev warned that if Egypt rénewed fire it might lead to total war on both the Egyptian and Syrian fronts.

Gen Bar-Lev told a public meeting in Tel Aviv that if firing was renewed, Israel had two military objectives - to prevent the enemy from gaining any territorial advantage and to reach a speedy ceasefire.

He saw three possibilities at pręsent. The first was purely theoretical and involved the possibility of a peace agree'ment. The chances for this were : close to nil, he added.

The second involved a continuation of the ceasefire and the third a resumption of fighting by Egypt - although it had no chance of winning.

His speech follows recent mılitant war-talk from President Anwar Sadat.

Ray Gardner, chairman of the factory's joint shop stewards' committee, is sure the Tories have had and are still having considerable influence over the company's conduct of the dispute.

'When we started, our local management claimed they were able to negotiate, he told me shortly before Friday's mass meeting. 'Now we know they've no power to negotiate independently at all.

He and other stewards give a blow-by-blow account of the strike which solidly backs up this view.

raced with the rapid erosion of an interim, phased pay increase of agreed last year, they submitted a claim for £5 based on the rocketing cost of living.

On August 3, the company rejected the claim out of hand at a local conterence.

So the six unions each went away to chew over their next move. They all decided to press on to national at York, which the final stage of engineering industry's procedure for avoiding disputes.

But as time slipped by the workers became Increasingly impatient.

With the disputes procedure due for termination In any case in mid-December, they decided to try and force Rolls' hand.

Token strikes At a mass meeting on September 4, it was decided to ban all overtime in the factory and stage a series of token stoppages on Friday afternoons. Those working the Friday night mini-shift would also stay away.

The plan-slightly modified by shop stewards to prevent a total shutdownwent into action on September 6 and lasted until halfway through October.

On October 17, after six half-day strikes, the company asked for talks.

Increases of up to £1 were offered in return for complete acceptance of both productivity strings and the principle that the full amounts would be offset •against any national agreeAll sanctions had been lifted by the labour force to allow these negotiations to take place, but at 6,000-strong mass meeting on October 22 the company's proposals were almost unanimously rejected.

Ray Gardner explains that he f5 claim had original!! been submitted on the basis of a clause in the August 1970 agreement providing for talks about a further NEWS DESK 01-720 2000 CIRCULATION 01-622 7029 increase if there was an "abnormal' rise in- the cost of living.

Management argued that despite their traumatic bankruptcy earlier this year -an abnormal occurrence if you like-they had shelled out the increases due under the old agreement.

But the money from Concorde was not coming in fast enough, costs were shooting up and the company would face a massive increase in its wage bill if the engineering unions' national claim was successful. The £1 was the most they could afford.

The meeting, which by then comprised all the manual workers on the site, unanimously rejected the offer and voted to strike with only six votes against.

During the seven weeks of strike a series of meetings have taken place at national and local level between stewards, union officials and senior management, but the end result has been the same: deadlock.

The government appointees on the Rolls board had intervened to stiffen what is, for them, an important battle for position in the war over engineering pay.

As in the Coventry toolroom dispute, the RollsRoyce (1971) Ltd directors have been cast in the role of pacemakers for the EEF; testing out the weakness of the union leadership.

There can be little doubt that today's meeting of union officials will seek to re-open talks with the company.

Last Friday's almost unbelievable comment from Vic Ryan, Transport and General Workers' Union Babcock jobs fight de 'ision BRITAIN'S leading machinetool manufacturer has announced a trading loss for the year, confirming the collapse in capital investment by industry.

Alfred Herbert said on Friday that accounts for the year to October 1971 will show a trading loss in the second six months 'substantially greater than in the first half'.

The first-half results showed that the group incurred a £828,000 loss in the six months to April.

After chairman Sir Richard official most closely involved day to day at Patchway, bears this out.

'The board,' he claimed, 'are obviously not aware of the problems surrounding the dispute.' But Ray Gardner and a strike-hardened majority of both stewards and workers are convinced that not only are the board aware of what they are doing, they are doing it with the support and encouragement of the Tory government.

As Alan Hembury, a fitter ten 'years at Patchway, summed up: 'Of course there are people who want to go back, there always 'But I know blokes who were bitter against the stewards when we came out --saying we didn't ought to take unofficial action and all that sort of thing-but who're all for it now the directors have really showed what they are.

'The way I think most of us see it is that we've been out seven weeks and lost £150-odd. We can't afford to go back with nothing now.' 40, TRY WORKERS ILESS.

s loss for lerbert's ting down the number and range of tools.

This has not brought the desired results because of a general slump in orders.

Although the firm says there are no liquidity problems, the fact that Jessel Securities have taken a 10 per cent share in Alfred Herbert is significant.

Tessel has long experience of 'rescuing' troubled engineering firms. It also has a reputation for buying out companies when they're in financial difficulties.