Boilermakers ballot to return, but Stormy opposition to Tyne deal

TWO THOUSAND Tyneside boiler makers employed at Swan Hunter's decided by a ballot vote of 1,337 to 803 to end their eight-week old strike yesterday.

The result came after a stormy mass meeting on Saturday at which union president Dan McGarvey outlined the terms of the package deal which would give the men an immediate increase of £2.50.

This would be followed by 50p instalments in January and April of next year and £l the following August.

As part of this is to be paid on the bonus, the full amount of £4.50 will depend on a drop in what McGarvey termed 'the alarming rate of absenteeism in the yards' The deal was bitterly attacked by a large minority of the stewards who argued for the original £4.72 cost-of-living increase in the basic rate.

McGarvey attempted to silence this criticism by trying to bind them to last Thursday's 28-23 decision of the shop stewards' committee in favour of the offer.

Les Jordan, a leading steward, told the mass meeting: 'The unCouncil workers' chiefs cave in UNION LEADERS representing 950,000 council workers yesterday agreed to postponę talks on their members' £4 pay claim. The talks had been scheduled for today.

When the two sides declined to reply to the day's talks between the Downing Street.

side, orkers' TransJnion officer they would anything Public journal, pub lished Loday. lot of players to nego pate the can on The em.

its merits'.

If they don't they will appear as agents of the government, the journal says. "The whole tone of the employers' response makes so car ashane the ployedis are coor cerned, is not the merit of the claim itself, but the policy which the government is determined to impose on the public sector.' The front-page article also reports that as the beginning of this month 'representatives of the employers were summoned o the Department of Employ nent and gıven a straight tall on how vital it was that they should not make any offer until Heath cleared his lines on the Chequers talks'.

The crucial question, however, is not to prove government intervention. That is well known. What council workers want to know is what their leaders in tend to do about the lories.

Besides a . £4-a-week increase in pay, the claim asks for a 35hour week, would 'threshold' raise earnings if the cost of living rose more than an agreed amount.

Yesterday's agreement to postpone the talks will be seen as evidence thai the union leaders --like their power union colleagues — are prepared, for all their fine words, to . come to terms with the Tories' state pay Office. Rist Published waperkers Press Clapham High Street, SW4 7UG.

Printed by Plough Press et. London: 180b Clapham High Street, SW4 7UG.

democratic manoeuvres of the full-time officials have come as no surprise to us, but I'm bitterly disappointed with the majority of the stewards who have opened the door and allowed them to take control of the dispute.

Inflation since last June has wiped out the £2.50 before we even see it. When the Tories take us into the Common Market we Will not notice the rest,' he continued.

Urging the men to continue the struggle, Mr Jordon pointed to the growing financial supmet on October 19 the employers unions' claim until after last ThursTUC, the CBI and the Tories at 10 New 'blacking' move to support SIX HUNDRED delegates from 17 different trade unions voted unanimously in Birmingham on Saturday to implement and extend the blacking of all firms concerned with Fine Tubes Ltd, the Plymouth firm which has been strike-bound for two years and four months.

There were convenors and shop stewards from all major car plants, including British-Leyland, Ford, Chrysler and MasseyFerguson and from Rolls-Royce and Hawker-Siddeley aircraft plants. Nineteen trades councils were also represented.

They called on all union executives to ensure that their officers and members effectively implement the black on Fine Tubes in deed as well as word. The demand was addressed particularly to the Transport and General Workers' Union and Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers icketing the US. whose members have been owned factory since the strike began.

Inquiry ignored

Though the strike is official, both unions have yet to instruct their members to impose the black, leaving a vital loophole through which supplies can get in and out of the factory. In addition, the engineering union has stopped paying strike pay to its members at the Plymouth factory.

Opening the Digbeth Hall conference, strike committee chairman Herman Welch outlined the history of the bitter Fine Tubes dispute. Since the strike began on lune 15. 1970, the company port from other yards down the country.

I received a cheque yesterday for £290,' he said.

This was used by McGarvey to launch a personal attack on Jordan. What is Jordan doing with the money? He is not your treasurer. I'm sure the boilermakers will reject procedure which can lead to the type of financial practices which we have seen before on the Tyne.' Terry Daley, secretary of the shop stewards committee, repudiated the implications of McGarvey's attack. He pointed out that it was Mr Jordan's job to tour the country to raise financial assistance.

McGarvey said that the men's security of employment had been discussed during talks with the management.

The two - year guarantee of employment expires in March next year and there was argument on this issue,' he said. "The firm said they don't have enough orders to guarantee employment tor a further year.' He made it clear that under no circumstances would we accept a staggered pay deal if members are going to be laid off in March next year. We will be seeking further guarantees and watching the situation'.

WEST GERMAN officials yesterday released three Arab guerrillas to fly by executive jet to Zagreb. Yugoslavia. Other guerrillas had taken a hijacked Lufthansa Boeing 727 there with a number of hostages. Earlier Israel's ambassador in Bonn demanded all requests to release the prisoners-taken after the Munich Olympic Games shoot-out —be ignored. The hijackers, armed with grenades, seized the Boeing between Beirut and Ankara and it ordered it to Munich where the guerrilla prisoners were held. Later they switched destinations and directed the plane to the Yugoslav airfield. Fine Tubes strikers had used sca b labour to keep the factory going. They had ignored the r commendations of a government inquiry into the strike.

Pickets had been attacked at the , gates, he alleged, and negotiations with the company had been confined to two brief meetings in February and July this year.

'We are going to fight on until we win because we believe we have a right to belong to a trade union, Mr Welch said.

In the discussion which followed many speakers attacked the official union attitude, particularly that of the AUEW, which now claims it is up to the shop floor to implement the blacking.

Joe Beckett, the local AUEW divisional secretary: was barracked by the meeting when he tried to justify the union's posiBeckett tried to lay the blame for the Fine Tubes position on the strike committee and the Plymouth membership of the union. But he was sharply atacked by Plymouth delegates who pointed out that the officials had done nothing to encourage local support for the strikers.

There was also a cool reception for Terry Friel, representing the UCS shop stewards' coordinating committee, when he laid the blame for the Tory government on the English Claiming the UCS sell-out as a victory, Friel said: 'Time has overshadowed the Fine Tubes men, but the battle is not lost.' AUBW assistant secretary Ernie Roberts, appearing in a personal capacity, told the meeting he was 'ashamed' the Fine SOCIALI LABOUR LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETING BEHIND THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY a reply to Losey's film WEDNESDAY NOV 'The Three Legs' The Headrow LEEDS 7.30 p.m.

Speaker :

Cliff Slaughte (SLL Central admission Labour League LECTURES OXFORD Thursday November 9 Basic essentials of Mai Thursday November 16 A theory of knowledge Thursday November 23 Opponents of Marxism Thursday November 30 Marxism—the science of perspective SOUTH OXFORD COMMUNITY CENT Lake Street, 8 p.m.

Lectures given by SLL general secretary Tubes strikers had been fight alone.

'We have to teach these anti-union American employers we are not serfs in this country, he said.

Roberts claimed sufficient strength at ence to defeat Fine he asked:

'Where is the TUC General Council in this struggle for basic trade union rights?' Questioned from the floor he said the AUEW should 'bend' the rules to pay benefit to its members at Fine Tubes.

IS rebuffed

Attempts by the state capitalist International Socialism group to push for the formation of rank-and-file Fine Tubes Action Committees were firmly rebuffed from the chair. The strike conmittee insisted that resolution should go through unamended.

Strike committee members insisted the main task was to ensure that the black on Fine Tubes products was made really watertight and that the unions take action to implement their decisions.

A collection at the conference raised over €1,000, including £380 donated by construction workers at Fiddler's Ferry power station site near Warrington.

Strike committee secretary Dick Williams said money to support the strike was urgently needed as the committee has to pay benefit to AUEW members who are without strike pay.

The committee's address is:

Bretonside, Plymouth, Devon.

Up-to-date blacking lists are supplied on request. there was the conferTubes, but