Pay queue restive

THE GASWORKERS' fight against state pay control became official from midnight last night.

A special sub-committee of the General and Municipal Workers' Union executive yesterday endorsed proposals for strikes, working-to-rule and withdrawal of cooperation to press the 47,000 gasworkers' claim for a £5.50 pay increase.

Two hundred and fifty thousand CIVIL SERVANTS yesterday continued their overtime ban against Phase Two of the pay-control laws, now being discussed by Commons standing committee.

vesterday afternoon TEACHERS Union TEACHERS announced the names of 120 London schools where teachers will begin three-day strike against the laws next Tuesday.

sume leaders of the six POST OFFICE unions will Employment today to "offer to the Department the Tories a deal over their £5 across-the-board pay claim.

deal involves acceptance of Phase Two, in return for a 'fairer' Phase Three.

Tom Jackson, Union of Post Office Workers' general secretary, hopes his members will be satisfied with a f2 Phase Two deal.

Talks are to be held on British Road Services settle Friday in bid TO settle pute with its 1,000 MIDLANDS DRIVERS over heavy goods vehicle licences. See page 1I.)

DOCKS union leaders in London have promised reply today to a £2.60 pay offer, which the employers say is the maximum allowed under Phase Two.

A meeting of dockers' delegates last night was expected to reject the offer out of hand. men's original claim was £5--£2.60 is an increase of only 4p on the employers' previous offer.

This claim affects 7,700 men in London's enclosed docks, but altogether there are more than 20,000 dockers caught in the freeze nationally.

In Liverpool there has still been no move to reopen talks on a big pay-and-hours claim blocked last November.

A PRINT pay settlement agreed last week is to be investigated by the Department of Employment.

Employment Secretary Maurice Macmillan has told the Commons standing committee on the CounterInflation Bill that if a 20p to £1 increase to clerical workers infringed the government's standstill he would act on it.

The clerical workers involved are members of the National Society of Operative Printers, Graphical and Media Personnel. • Gas witch-hunt, Second rates delegation TWELVE delegates from the Association of Municipal Corporations yesterday pleaded with Edward Heath not to impose the new rates revaluaThe delegates representing the London boroughs, county councils, rural and urban district cou ncils.

Worker-actors add beats path to No 10 IN MERTHYR we have embarked on the second week of rehearsals of the Taff Vale episode in the history of the working class -and it's three weeks to go to the Empire Pool Pageant.

We are already able to work on 'crowd scenes' and to try out movements of pickets and their families as they repulse the blacklegs brought from London to end the strike by the Taff Vale railmen.

We are also experimenting with more detailed improvisaRockware pickets stop staff scabbing THE ROCKWARE glass workers at Greentora in miadiesex yesteraay held a 24-hour strike in protest against the threatened closure of their works.

Pickets were on the gate (above) to persuade the white-collar staff not to work.

Meanwhile a strong delegation of Rockware men went to the Old Kent Road in South London to join Six charges dropped in Dublin spy case ENGLISHMAN John Wyman and Irish police officer Patrick Crinnion were acquitted of six charges under the Official Secrets Act yesterday by a Dublin court.

But both men were remanded in custody until February 26 when Last Friday the Labour leaders of six main cities — Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol and Sheffield—also beat a path to No. 10 Downing Street on a similar mission.

They were told by Heath and Environment Secretary Mr Geoffrey Rippon that no firm commitment could be made. But both promised to look into the This was enough for Villiam Setton, leader of Liverpool's Labour group, to declare that The talks had haen *Successful and Heath had been 'sympathetic'.

In the Commons on Monday, Mr Phillip Whitehead, the Labour own touches to plays tions, such as making up scenes. We have found much material we can add to the script-such as the possibility of the strikers working 'patches' on the hills. These were pits dug into seams coal near the surface. The husband would work at these in the night after being covered over by his wife.

We're also working local colour and jokes into the script.

For instance, we have one picket saying to another while the Briant Colour Printing rally and marcn on parament (see p. 1z).

The family-owned Rockware group has announced its intention to close the factory in January 1973 and dismiss the 900-strong work force.

The Rockware co-ordinating committee have been considering an occupation along the lines of Briant Colour. they will face a further four summary counts under the Secrets Act.

Wyman (36), an MIS agent of Swan Walk, Chelsea, and Crinnion (38), of Rathmore Avenue, Dublin, were acquitted because the state would not produce official documents in court.

MP for Derby, asked the government intervene to stop the massive increases in rates. 'If the government wishes to make any kind of gesture, it must surely intervene on the rates front at once and either postpone the revaluation, or at least mitigate its consequences for the cities.' awaiting the blackleg train from London that perhaps he should first put on an English accent and cadge a couple of Woodies ...before booting them back to London.

Our local Pageant committee has become an essential weapon for the development of the work. The fight that they are putting up has given us enormous confidence for the outcome of the Pageant.

Among trade unionists BOOK YOUR TICKET FOR EMPIRE POOL NOW DEFEND ALL DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS Defend trade unionism and basic living standards Unite in action to make this Tory government resign The road to power is through the building of revolutionary SUnDAY MARCH 11th 3pm PAGEANT•RALLY• CONCERT I would like to take part Please send me further NAME.

ADDRESS....

of tickets Con and return t Pag 34 Hamilton and JARROW there is a great response to the questions of history that raised. Many have dropped are rehearsals, but so far the acting is mainly left up to the younger However, we need their experience for such parts at James Holmes, South Wales organizer of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, who, a year before the Taff Vale strike, proposed the building Labour Party at the TUC.

During this week we'll have them taking the floor.

ON MONDAY night the Jarrow cast In the episode dealing with the fight for union organization in the north-east worked on the binding scene when the pit overseer tried to bribe the striking workers to sign a new bond with offers of free ale.

The bond was a yearly contract miners signed which fixed their wages, conditions and When signed the miners were virtual slaves of the employers, living in houses owned by the colliery, shopping in the Tommy shops, also owned by the colliery and working up to 16 hours a day in the pit.

The scene quickly gained a solid Geordie basis as the members of the cast drew on their own experiences to change and enliven it. cribed as a load of rubble, by overseer's speech a young ex-miner who now works in appalling conditions as a tanker cleaner, came to life as the workers injected their own class feelings into the historical conflict.

Last night the Right-to-Work film was shown at the rehearsal. YOUNG SOCIALISTS AND SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE A PAGEANT OF HISTORY -THE ROAD TO WORKERS POWER EMPIRE POOL. WEMBLEY. SUNDAY MARCH 11 3 P.M. the Pageant/come tails.

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THE DOCUMENT PAGE Press. Wednesday February 14. 1973