AS TUC SIGNS NO-STRIKE PACT WITH CBI

state of emergency decree. ber 1.

Eventually the 'confrontation' in staff.

The costs of the service will be split down the middle. Half of them, in other words, would come out of union subscriptions.

Also yesterday, Feather, Adamson, Sir Frank Figgures of the National Economic Development Office and Sir Douglas Allen of the Treasury met to plan the agenda of next Monday's threesıded talks on pay and industrial The agenda is part of a shabby manoeuvre to shelve the issue of the Industrial Relations Act during their talks. Union representatives also met employers and government officials at an NEDC meeting on the economic prospects of medium-sized firms.

This orgy of class-collaboration took place as the terms of the state of emergency were being drafted. At a press conference called to announce the signing of his stop-strikes pact with the CBI, Feather said it had been achieved 'in a very short space of time with an absence of rancour and complete unanimity about the need for conciliation in industry.

He went on: 'Confrontation means bloody noses for everybody and we want conciliation and settlements.' Feather was quick to claim on Adamson's behalf that the CBI director had been 'misquoted' in a recent 'Sunday Telegraph' interview which said the unions and the employers werę working with a pay-rise norm of only 8 per cent in mind. THE TORY government was expected to introduce emergency powers against the dockers' strike as a matter of urgency yesterday. The crisis group of cabinet ministers around Edward Heath were expected to meet yesterday evening and there were plans to rush ministers by air to the Royal yacht 'Brittania' to get the Queen's Assent to the emergency proclamaUnder the Emergency Powers Act 1920, the government can take steps necessary to secure 'the essentials of life, to the community. These can be any measures it thinks fit, including sending troops onto the docks to shift perishable cargoes and the introduction of price controls. The Act gives the government sweeping dictatorial powers and the Tories need only seek parliamentary consent within seven days to ratify the As the Tories were preparing this move, TUC secretary Victor Feather signed with the head of Britain's employers, CBI director W. O. Campbell Adamson, a joint pact for stopping strikes.

The document to which the two men put their signatures set out the details of the independent Conciliation and Arbitration Service' the TUC and the CBI hope to start operating from Septemservice-seen by Feather as an alternative to industry—will have a full-time director and Victor Feather and the TUC General Council think they can use illusions amongst many of their members, created by the release of the five jailed dockers, to launch full-scale collaboration with the government. • They think the process can be assisted by the T&GWU secretary Jack Jones's continuing attempts with the port employers to find a formula for ending the docks strike.

The dangerous, anti-working class character of the TUC's manoeuvres is amply proved by Tory premier Heath's description of Tuesday evening's discussions. They were 'positive, constructive and valuable', he said.

Yet while Heath was turning this conciliatory face to the Feather and Jones, 4,000 extra British troops were • consolidating their grip on the Irish working class and government spokesmen were launching a fierce attack on the unions in the House of Commons.

At the end of a heated debate on the Industrial Relations Act he co-authored with then Employment Secretary Robert Carr, Solicitor-General Sir Geoffrey Howe ranted that the unions would 'have to learn to live with democracy.

After attacking the Labour leaders for 'political opportunism compounded by cowardice, he repeated: "There must be acceptance by the leaders of the trade union movement that the laws of this land are not made at Congress House.' COMES TOM future of balanced on It is in these spiteful, arrogant words that the authentic voice of Toryism today is to be heard.

And even behind the relatively diplomatic cadences of Heath, who on Tuesday evening had good reason to be pleased with the union chiefs, lurked the clear threat of a state of emergency.

leaders know their system a knife-edge.

The rising price of gold yesterday it reached the staggering level of $70.50 an ounce-is steadily undermining the last remnants of post-war international monetary co-operation (see page 2).

This opens up the immediate rospect of the formation of lostile monetary blocs along the lines proposed by the French and the Italians. Such a development could only heighten the trade war and the credit crisis, threatening jobs and living standards throughout the capitalist world.

Ulster reveals the scale of the response the Tories are prepared to make if they feel the movement of the working class in such a situation makes it necessary.

In • this context the •UBITTS • PICHE W WORKER leaders want talks with Heath, but not with their own members.

Feather and his right-wing supporters refused to recall the TUC, despite the support of unions with a majority membership for this call.

Jones will not recall his union's biennial conference despite the grave threats it faces under the Act. Rather 'than vigorously lead his 40,000 docker members in struggle to defeat the employers, he rushes into further private discussions with the employers' leaders.

The working class must mand:

• Break talks Tories.

• Convene an emergency biennial conference T&GWU.

Extend the docks General Strike. • Force the Tories • Return a Labour government pledged to repealing the Industrial Relations Act and nationalizing docks, road transport, banks, basic industry without compensation and under workers' control. BUILDING RyTANHES accept pay deal say angry builders Union - employer talks the building workers' pay claim ended without any agreement late yesterday afternoon. A thousandstrong lobby of builders stood outside the meeting.

They were agry at the latest offer. Se p12 for full report.

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