Dockers' severance gains are frozen

DOCKERS leaving the industry voluntarily this month will find their severance pay short by three days' holiday money-but their union leaders aren't going to lift a finger." :

The money they will lose covers the extrathe unions and nonaav the port employers last year.

Under the terms of the settlement, the holiday entitlement of registered dockerg was to go up from three to four weeks in two stağes.

wo of the days went on the entitlement last year. The other three were due from January 1, 1973.

The National Joint Council for SLL LECTURES TODMORD Monday January 8 'The economic crisis' Monday January 22 'Stalinism' Monday February 5 'Trotskylsm' THE WEAVERS' INSTITUTE, Burnley Road, 7.30 p.m.

SHEFFI Monday January 8 Marxism and the YOUNG SOCIALIST PREMISES Portobello, Sheffield (near Jessop's hos 7.30 p.m.

HULL Wednesday January 17 Stalinism and Trotskyism Wedhesday January 24 Marxist theory and the rev tonary party WHITE HART Alfred Gelder (near Drypool DONCASTER Sunday January 21 What future for the labour movement.

Sunday January 28 The crisis and the socialist answer.

Sunday February 4 The revolutionary pe Lectures given by Cliff Slaughter.

SPREAD EAGLE Westlaithgate 7.30 p.m.

An appeal on behalf of the Fine Tubes strikers of Plymouth The Plymouth Fine Tubes Strikers, their wives and 53 children have just spent their third Christmas on strike with very little money.

These men have waged a bitter struggle for the most basic right a worker can possessthe right to belong to a trade union.

Strike committee members have travelled over 100,000 miles to sustain their fight. the Port Transport Industry has been told by the government that the three days due from January I come within the termscof its pay-control law.

So the men are to leave the industry with only three weeks and three days' holiday pay in their packets.

"This is a sticky problem', says Hüll dockers black lorry firm over jobs HULL dockers have implemented a black against a Goole transport firm in defiance of official union policy.

They have turned away two lorries belonging to A. Williams which called at the King George dock for a consignment of Danish canned goods. The shop stewards committee threatened the black some time ago and set a January 1 deadline. pina.

The company has a depot near Goole which employs non-registered dock workers.

The dockers say that the goods go into the depot and

'Kangaroo court'

sacked teachers claim OF THE 127 teachers dismissed by the Teesside Education Committee för working-to-contract—120 didn't get a hearing. And more sackings are likely among 158 members of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers who have been suspended for working-to-contract since the end of October.

The dispute arose over assurances sought by the unions • ON job-security for teachers affected by the reorganization of schools along comprehensive lines.

The 120 were dismissed without a hearing because they were not present for a roll-call at the sessions of a special education sub-committee.

But the teachers claim they were expected to wait in the local town hall from 9 a.m. until midnight.

On Thursday, for example, when 30 teachers had been called before the sub-committee, only one case had been heard by 7 p.m. and the remaining 29 went home. They then received letters informing them of their dismissal.

NAS national executive member from Teesside, Phits West, described the sackings as jungle injustice'. Describing the subcommittee as a 'kangaroo court' Mr West continued: 'The reaction up here is one of anger and complete disgust.' The NAS has advised the This Christmas has been the hardest of all. It has imposed a great financial burden. Now the 37 strikers face the rest of the winter with a depleted strike fund. January is always a difficult month to raise money lo further their fight.

Yet they are determined to fight on. This is a struggle the working class cannot afford to lose. That is why the Socialist Labour League and the WorkTim O'Leary, Transport and General Workers' Union docks secretary. 'We have gone into-it very thoroughly. The advice we have been given is that the additional three days' holiday comes within the terms of the "freeze"

'We are seeking more information to confirm this, but it seems at the moment we must accept this position.' are broken down for dist ribution." This was work n hich dockers did a few years ago and they want registered employed in the depot.

A T&GWU spokesman said yesterday the union had oficially adyised members handle cargo for the firm.

Last year the stewards were taken to the National Industrial Relations Court for blacking another local firm, PanalWalter. Cunningham, the chairman of the Hull stewards, was named in the complaint, but he refused to appear before Sir John Donaldson. sacked teachers not to reply to a letter from the committee which stated they could 'substantiate' their reasons for nonappearance by writing to it by January 8.

The National Union of Teachers has so far issued no statement of support for the sacked teachers nor given any indication of what its attitude will be when Teesside schools open on Monday after the Christmas holiday.

Instead the NUT has asked Education Minister Mrs Thatcher to hold a government inquiry into the situation.

SHELL oil refinery strikers near Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, _are to meet again on Monday. The 950 members of the T&GWU came out on Thursday night after six workers had been suspended for refusing to change a flat tyre on a sampling van. They say the work should be done by à craftsman, but the management says that under a new productivity deal minor jobs can be done by. other workers. A company spokesman Claimed yesterday that productivity was being maintained by supervisory staff.

ers Press wishes to make a special appeal to all trade unionists to take collections in their factories and branches for the Fine Tubes men in order that their heroic and determined action can, be carried forward. All money should be sent to:

Fine Tubes Treasurer c/o 65 Bretonside Plymouth, Devon. NO FIRM date has been fixed for further talks on the Ford pay claim, it emerged after an 'exploratory' meeting be-