YET ANOTHER UNION RETREAT NUM FALLS IN TE WITH TORY TUC PAY

meeting in London, agreed to delay the start of negotiations on their big, new pay claim until December. Senior Tory Ministers-in Blackpool for their Party conference-had cause for celebration. They have already reacted with pleasure to the TUC General Council's proposals for an 'alternative' to premier Heath's £2 limit on pay rises and will see yesterday's move as further confirmation that union chiefs are toeing their line.

At its annual conference in July, the NUM set its sights on rises of £5.50 to £7 and a shorter working week. The union also decided to ask the National Coal Board for changes in existing differentials.

Earlier this month union secretary Lawrence Daly said that the Heath plan would not affect union pay negotiators' mendation to yesterday's executive meeting. And as executive members dispersed yesterday morning, president Joe Gormley insisted that the government plan had not entered into their considerations. But he added: 'I have no doubt that the talks with the TUC and the government are bound to colour people's minds at the end of the exercise.' Gormley claimed that the reason for delaying detailed formulation and presentation of the claim was lack of information. The executive had to take into account all the resolutions passed at the conference, he said. It might well have to have a composite claim covering all the issues raised in July.

This would be decided at next month's executive meeting, and negotiations with the NCB would start in December.

Gormley was asked about a pledge given last month to Industry Minister Tom Boardman, that in the event of disagreement full consideration would be given to the use of arbitration 'so as to avoid industrial action if possible'.

He complained that it was difficult to persuade his union members to trust arbitration when both the government and the TUC were introducing figures into the discussion.

Arbitration, of which Gormley is a keen advocate, is another key element in the Tories' state ment industrial workers.Bovernment In custria claim has been sent there as part of the backstage deal between Heath and the TUC at Chequers.

The miners' present pay deal with the Coal Board does not expire until February, enabling the right wing of the union executive to argue that there is no rush to submit their claim.

But the Wilberforce report which formed the basis of the last deal specified that pay negotiations could be put back to their traditional time of November if either party wished.

And with at least 2 million workers in the pay queue alongside the miners, power men and government industrial workers, yesterday's decision was clearly a key one for the Tory campaign.

Yet Gormley was able to announce after the meeting that the decision to defer the claim has been unanimous. In other words, it had bee: supported not only by the right wing but also by the Communist Party faction on the executive. friends ithe Tories and their pressure daily for a fully-fledged system of . state regulation of wages, this is an abandonment of the CP miners' leaders responsibility to the working class as a whole.

Whatever the technical arguments brought forward by the right wing, the predominant question for every trade unionist