Hawker's are 18th to sit-in

IS 18th factory • ( said that the shop stewards' greater Manchester engineers call for an occupation had pay dispute was occupied yes- been unanimously backed at a terday, the unions blamed the mass meeting yesterdar morning. escalation in the two-week dispute on employers.

The latest group of workers We are not prepared to lift to go on sit-in strike are 1,200 our action until the manageHawker Siddeley employees at ment come forward with an Woodford, near Stockport, offer on wages, hours and Cheshire. holidays.

Works between workers and management, Hawker Sid deley refused to give any settlement n wages and hours In a statement issued yesWe are in very high spirits. rerday, the CSEU blamed the employers for escalating the dispute by locking workers skilled workers in t criticized the action.

G&MWU national organizer Ken Baker vırtually declared the dispute 'unconstitutional' when he met local stewards and officials on Tuesday. He said the Manchester district Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions had no power to instruct G&MWU stewards to take industrial action. He further demanded to know why the union's members at Bredbury were demanding £10-aweek wage increase instead of £4.

News of this confrontation has reached G&MWU members and their mood is one of anger. Many naively expected that the Baker visit would result in official backing and strike pay for the men who are occupying or locked out.

In fact the G&MWU executive out.

But they added that some settlements had been signed on the three points and that last-minute meeting more were expected soon.

even consider the Bredbury dispute until next Wednesday and it has not even been officially notified of the disputes in other Manchester plants.

The Manchester battle is now assuming a classic form. Workers and some local officials are ready to fight it out with employers who are applying Tory policy within industry.

The union leaders, however are ignoring them or attacking them. Every national executive affiliated to the CSEU has attempted to isolate the dispute by confining the action to the Manchester area.

Engineering workers everywhere must campaign in their branches for national action or else a serious defeat could be inflicted on engineering workers in the NW.

back For inst throw the pians to insurrer • The RUC was machine shop.

with redundancy.

morkers nrass INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • FRIDAY APRIL 7, 1972 • No. 733 • 4p DAL CAGAN OF THE CENTER. COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE MANCHESTER ENGINEERS' FIGHT EMPLOYERS DIG IN STEPHEN JOHNS KEY talks between a big Manchester employer and unions over the district-wide engineering pay claim have proved totally abortive.

Unions met one of the Big Four combines, GKN, at Bredbury • steelwor ks, Stockport, Cheshire, for tr le first time on But negotiations broke down when it became clear that management would only offer a meagre wage increase in exchange for a steep rise in productivity.

Both men and union officials were admitting yesterday that this was a final sign that groups like GKN, Hawker Siddeley, AEI and British Steel Corporation, are determined to present a united opposition to the claim for a £4 increase, a 35-hour week and longer holidays.

'It seems we are in for a long battle. Management do not appear to want to give in and neither do we,' a spokesman for the AUEW said.

GKN at Bredbury, who have faced a sit-in strike by workers for over three weeks, offered pay rises starting at £1.42 for a new productivity scheme involving Measured-Day Work. They refused discuss demands on hours and holidays. Siddeley @ mI plant THE CAREFULLYtimed Scarman Report was released yesterday to create further political disorientation in Ireland following the imposition of direct rule from Westminster.

It was significant that before details of the report were publicly released, the new Tory supremo in Ulster, William Whitelaw, issued his own comments on its findings.

In one of the most placatory speeches the Tories have made on Ulster since coming to office, Whitelaw said the report exploded many of the myths about the IRA's role in the 1969 riots, about the so-called organized attack by Protestants on Catholics and about the behaviour of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

am convinced that the people of N Ireland now wish to go forward in harmony and cooperation, and will regard this uniquely important historical document as the end of an era.' The report, prepared almost two years ago by Mr Justice Scarman, whitewash-of everybody concerned.

In fact, after reading it, one wonders whether Scarman is actually describing Ulster where Tne British army has an occupation army of 15,000 soldiers, where more than 600 men are interned without trial,