HOSIERY WORKERS FORM RANK-AND-FILE COMMITTEE TO WIN BACK WAGE CUTS

The Newsletter, vol. 3 no. 106, 13 June 1959 · scan page 4

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WHEATSHEAF MINERS WIN A VICTORY AND From Our Manchester Correspondent FINE gauge hosiery knitters in the Ilkeston and Mansfield district have formed a rank-and-file committee to defend their conditions and win back wage cuts imposed on them in recent months by the employers and the union officials.

The committee has formed links with other districts as far apart as St Albans and West Hartlepool.

Its first action was to have a show-down with Moulden, the president of the National Union of Hosiery Workers.

About 150 delegates from all parts of the district met at Mansfield on May 30, long-distance expenses being met by collections of up to £20 in the factories.

Wages cut by £8 The aim of the knitters at this meeting was to force Moulden to agree to rank-and-file control of negotiations over conditions and wages.

The knitters argue that only rank-and-file control will enable them to win back the cuts of up to £8 which they have sustained.

This figure of £8 was actually quoted in the meeting by a knitter who produced details of his earnings to prove it.

The delegates were determined to see the meeting through, and the feeling was that they could not be provoked by talk of ‘secret meetings’ and ‘political interference’ thrown at them from the platform. Se At one stage thirty knitters angrily made for the door after Moulden had refused to answer a question. They were, however, persuaded to stay and fight for their right to control the leaders of their own union.

Demands were voiced inat ‘the executive should be subject to recall by the rank and file’.

Delegates elected from factories The final decision of the meeting, accepted by the platform, was that a national delegate conference be convened in five weeks’ time to discuss conditions affecting the fine gauge section and that the delegates to this conference be elected from the factories themselves.

After the meeting many of the knitters I spoke with were very bitter against allegations which have been made about outside political interference.

A handful directed their anger against The Newsletter itself; which seems to show that Moulden knows what he is doing when he tries to divert attention from himself to the ‘red bogy man’.