40-HOUR WEEK
By Brian Behan
1959The NewsletterBrian Behan Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
POWER WORKERS FIGHT FOR A national committee of rank-and-file delegates from power stations as far apart as London and Birmingham will meet on Saturday to consider what action they should take to compel the British Electricity Authority to meet their demands for a 40-hour week and a third week’s annual holiday.
The men are fed up with the delaying tactics of the Board. They know that last year the employers made £27 million profit, more than enough to meet their ciaim.
What is not so well known is that this profit was after paying out fantastic sums to the old owners. For example, since 1947 the power industry has made a total of £906 million profit. The colossal sum of £313 million has been paid out in interest on stock held by the former share-holders.
It can be easily understood that if the demand of the Socialist Labour League for an end to compensation and the introduction of workers’ control were realized workers in the power industry could immediately enjoy an improvement in their wages and conditions.
Key position There is a real movement in the power stations determined to fight for their claims. The men know that theirs is such a key position that no government could withstand a large scale stoppage.
The men at Bankside have set the ball rolling by banning all overtime.
As overtime working is one of the mainstays of their wage packet there can be no doubt that the firmness with which they are continuing the ban shows their determination to secure the shorter working week.
There is no such determination on the part of the officials. On the contrary they are working night and day to prevent the extension of the overtime ban. Bankside should -not be: extended to:all other stations. This, as one worker put it, ‘could culminate in a national stopage on November 18’, the day the Board meets the unions again to give a reply to the claim.
Power workers will be coming to the National Assembly of Labour, where one of the main aims will be to unite all those who are struggling for the 40-hour week.