Coventry site stops after Picket run down by car

CORRESPONDENT THE WOODBURN site in Coventry-where a p in a car on Wednesday—was finally closed yest employed by Quinn, the second main contractor tollowing a picket by about 8u men-including struck in sympathy to close the site.

On Wednesday, UCATT picket Harban Singh injured his leg when knocked over by a car trying to break through the line. He had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

This incident occurred after scabs had openly threatened to run down pickets and two other cars had rushed the line.

In contrast, the picket itself had been entirely peaceful. Anyone seriously intent on crossing the picket line had only to ride across some rough ground. The Lal. nevertheless, swerved at high speed through the pickets on the main gate, without even sounding its horn.

Charlie Mclvor, chairman of Coventry shop stewards action committee, was standing near to larban Singh when he was struck down.

'We were picketing when I, as a representative of the committee, hailed the car down. only just managed to jump out of the way in time. I shouted to the police constable 25 yards down the road, that this car had knocked down a picket.

'The police officer hailed the car down, but it refused to stop until after a 400 yard chase. It appears that the driver was a sub contractor off the site.' The incident, which incensed all the pickets, has strengthened their determination to pull out more sites in the district.

Tom McGuniness describes fellow pickets' reaction:

'We were determined that nohody Was going to get through. They would have had to have run us all down. All we wantee to OUI raint do thed and ask for their In fact men still working the Woodburn site were themselves visibly shaken by the incident. Earlier in the morning pickets had already pulled one man out, and dissuaded some electricians and a Gas Board van from crossing the line.

combination of these circumstances led announcement by the main contractor on the site Hartwood Ltd-that work would end at the end of the day.

Eddie Donaghue of the Coventry shop stewards action committee, compared the justice of the builders' claim with the vicious reaction of the scabs.

'We stopped them mainly to ask for their support for our claim for a decent basic rate. As we stand now, there is no building society in the country that vould even think of giving us i loan for a decent house or our basic rate.

We build the houses, but they are for others to live in. No building worker can afford them.' Registered as a newspaper at the Post Published by Workers Press. 186a High treet, London.

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CIRCULATION

01-622 7029 NEWS DESK 01-720 2000 cki rd: on Harban Singh, the injured Boilermakers reject dea CLYDESIDE boilermakers CLYDESIDE boilermakers staged a dramatic revolt yesterday and threw out the latest draft agreement for establishing Govan Shipbuilders.

The shock decision was taken against the advice of the shop stewards co-ordinating committee and their local union executive at a mass meeting.

The move puts the future of Govan shipbuilders in jeopardy. The company has warned unions that if they do not sign the agreement by 3 p.m. today there will be no government money and no Govan Shipbuilders.

The rank-and-file boilermakers want to negotiate a wage similar to the fl an hour paid by Marathon Manufacturing at the Clydebank yard.

The company is insisting that the deal must be signed first bebore negotiations can start.

At yesterday's meeting, boilermakers' delegate Jimmy Ramsey said the firm had indicated that talks on a new pay deal could start immediately the ink was dry on the agreement.

But this was not enough for the militant boilermakers. show of hands for the recommendation revealed a substantial majority against. In a bid to recover the position officials held a ballot, but the deal was still rejected by 540 votes to 560.

This is was run down by a scab morning. Work ers ite, came out on s rike irporation builders blow to the Stalinist-led shop stewards' co-ordinating committee. Sammy Barr, a leading Communist Party shop steward and boilermakers' convenor put the case for accepting the deal at the meeting.

He repeated the old Stalinist argument-used to justify every one of the many retreats at UCS THE GOVERNMENT was accused yesterday of squandering millions on lame duck shipyards instead of modernizing the shipbuilding industry.

The all-party Public Accounts Committee says that much of the £40.8m handed over between 1967 and 1971 was used by firms to avoid bankruptcies and losses.

Of the £35m the Tories have pledged to Govan Shipbuilders on the Upper Clyde, half will be used to compensate for loss making orders.

-that resistance by boilermakers would turn 'public opinion' against them.

Ramsey and the other boilermakers delegate Willy Dougan also hinted that a refusal to accept might bring the boilermakers' leader Danny McGarvey down to the Clyde once more.

Despite these pleas almost every speaker from the floor came out against signing the deal.

afraid falls in line LEICESTER Labourites yesterday led a delegation to see a Tory Home Office minister in London saying they did not want any Ugandan Asians to come to the city.

The controlling Labour group, led by Alderman Edward Marston, have been quick to fall into line with the hysterical Tory press campaign.

Said Marston after the meeting: 'If any more come it it will be a great handicap to those already living Leicester. We already have about 30,000 coloured people?

Marston is too quick to isolate the coloured community when there is in fact a total population in the city of some 275,000 people. See p. 3. go to hospital in Shipbuilders will dr. Shipbuilders will drag out pay talks to hold back any increase for as long as possible. They point out that there has been a virtual pay freeze at the yard for over 12 months.

The decision was a shock to Govan Shipbuilders. The company thought that its pledge to employ by mid-October all of the 77 boilermakers left in the 'work-in' at the three old UCS divisions of Scotstoun, Govan and Linthouse would be enough to get agreement from the men.

A company spokesman said yesterday that the deadline for signing and the warning still stood.

In a statement released immediately he heard the decision, Archibald Gilchrist, managing director of Govan Shipbuilders said:

If this is what the boilermakers have agreed, it is very disappointing indeed. But I can hardly think they would refuse to sign on a matter of this kind. It's nothing like so important as the employment situation, which, after much discussion has beer resolved.

'It is not a question of the company refusing retrospective payments, but refusing to guarantee a date from which that payment can be applied before negotiations have even started. It seems common sense that the implementation date of a wage settlement should ba part of a negotiation leading to that settlement.'