Dustmen's strike in danger

Workers Press no. 8, 8 October 1969 · scan page 2

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Thursday.

Schumann will take the chair of the so-called 'great commission' on Franco - Soviet co-operation, but some of his time, it is reported, will be spent in talks with top Soviet government has come to power in West Germany, where the working class has just begun to move.

In Britain, Wilson begins his preparation for a general election without having solved a single basic economic problem.

Italy threatens daily to erupt into a movement on the is already being Foreign Minister to Moscow on Robert Black 100/ VIETNAM THE LONDON dustmen because productivity dea unions as the way to win This clashes with the big opposition to such deals shown by the men at Friday's Caxton Hall negotiations.

By Monday the strike had spread to all but three of London's 32 boroughs, and also to Lewisham, Greenwich and Bromley.

About 5,500 dustmen and 3,000 other workers were involved.

Conce NOW strike is in danger are seen by their ne $20 basic wage.

local authority estimated to be MORE LENIENT The danger to the strike is illustrated by the statements of Mr Derek Gladwin, joint secretary of the negotiating council, who was reported as saying that the employers had been 'completely unconstructive'.

He said the unions might have taken a more lenient line if the employers had been prepared to examine ways of meeting the men's demands through such means as productivity schemes.

In other words union officials are preparing to sell productivity concessions for wage increases.

Indeed the unions already complain of councils' slowness to implement deals agreed 'in general terms'.

The national joint council meets tomorrow in Edinburgh and the 15s. claim for 680,000 local authority workers will be on the agenda.

-201 UNOFFICIAL Whether or not the 'unions will press the £20 basic claim at Edinburgh remains to be seen, but they now seem most unlikely to make the strike official before the meeting, despite promises of early action.

This delay and uncertainty should be a warning that dustmen must take the leadership into their own hands for a wage increase with no strings.

No reliance at all can be placed in the trade union bureaucracy to carry through this fight.

The men must rely on their own strength and beware of a deal being worked out at their expense. • See story page four