Builders on guard!

will have to be on guard i ployers for the first time i ONE is a straight compromise at the national joint council, with leaders signing a two-year deal which falls below the claim.

THE OTHER equally dangerous possibility is the reference of the claim—with the agreement of both sides to the TUC. CBI conciliation service.

Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians' general secretary George Smith played a léading, role as TUC General Council chairman in the creation of this new wage-cutting As far as the union leaders are concerned, it could represent a way of getting off the hook as any decision made by the TUCCBI service would be binding on both sides.

The decision to hold next Thursday's talks was made at the TUC itself in informal meetings between union leaders and the employers. It is thought some more cash will be offered, but nowhere near enough to meet the full claim.

With the dispute coming to the end of its lith week, with almost 300,000 builders out on strike, there is widespread disillusionment with the conduct of the union leaders.

Not only have they refused to call an all-out national strike, but also failed to ask other unions for support.

Now the Tories, taking advantage of builders' Isolation, are planning to. starve them back. Orders have gone out to Social Security offices about payments to strikers. At the same time, police, encouraged by the Industrial Relations Act, are provoking pickets and escorting scabs through to work in line with adverts issued by the employers.

Many builders see the main question as the fight for 100-percent trade unionism on sites and the abolition of the 'lump'. That means they are involved in a full-scale battle with the Tory government which would welcome a defeat for the building workers as part of their anti-trade union offensive.

Building trade union leaders nust be told Clearly to stop etreating and call a centralized, national strike. No more company agreements-which serve to weaken the strike further-must be signed.

Above all, , the TUC must be made to mobilize the full weight of its 10 million members in a General Strike to force the Tories to resign and elect a Labour government pledged to socialist policies. That is the only perspective for building workers.

speed-up CARWORKERS at Chrysler's Coventry car-assembly factory have voted in a secret ballot to accept a new speed-up deal.

New top rates for day-shift workers under the 12-month agreement are now £45 for a 40-hour week and nearly £52 for night-shift workers. A newlyintroduced incentive scheme based on the number of cars produced is said by the company to be capable of producing up to £2 extra a week. 35-hour on strike for the £30, 35-hour week claim strike for the rext Thursday when union leaders meet emThursday when union leaders 1 five weeks. Two dangers exist. weeks. Two dangers exist.

FLEET STREET saw grounds for optimism in ICI's latest profit figures yesterday, but in fact its results are certain to spur the company into further rationalizations and job-cuts.