STRATFORD: sack for railwaymen fat profits for big business

From BOB SHAW, Our Scottish Correspondent T is reported that the leaders of the recent strike at TT is reported that the leaders of the recent strike at Kincardine power station were called before the Executive Committee of the ETU during the last fortnight on disciplinary charges. Despite the fact that some of the men had been without wages due to the strike for as long as 15 weeks, fines totalling f50 were imposed by the right-wing leaders and the men were notified that these sums would be entered on their contribution cards as arrears.

Three of the strike leaders are suspended from holding office in the union for a period of five years. Two others are suspended from office for three years.

Through the Kincardine strike, the liaison between the right-wing leadership of the union, the electrical contracting employers and the organisations of the state (police, courts, etc.), were made absolutely clear.

In his infamous letter to a scab steward on the job, Mr. Byrne, general secretary of the ETU, claimed the right to such liaison by referring to the fact that the strike was 'unofficial'.

The resort to police action was upheid by decision of the court in Dunfermline. For the Right wing this settles the matter.

But the rank and file electricians n the Falkirk area are becoming nore and more convinced that th Right wing must be fought and removed.

Right-wing intervention has meant a drop in wages at Kincardine of 1/- per hour.

The damage to the militant wing of workers in contracting goes much further. The electricians have been traditionally the first to fight to improve job conditions and wages. The Byrne leadership aims to reverse this.

Those who participated in the Kincardine dispute are not crushed; they can still fight back. It would, nonetheless, be foolish to suppose that the future course of the fight for democratic control of the union is plain sailing, that Fords: the betrayal

Byrne: infamous letter

it requires nothing more than patience and one or two favourable ballots.

There are indications that the Communist Party is encouraging its members to believe that whereas Kincardine was 'ultraleft' ', and 'adventurist', the winning of posts in the union is the main objective.

This is no different from the King Street policy which brought disaster in the past.

The CP hopes to keep its image of being a militant anti-capitalist party whilst building up positions of power inside the right-wing apparatus.

There are some important ballots ceming up in the ETU in Scotland. The winning of these by the militant opposition is of great importance.

Of greater importance, however, is the need for the rank and file electricians to understand that winning the ballot is not just a substitution for Byrne and company of some other Left clique, but the clearing of the decks for a fight with the Right wing in the TUC and the Labour Party on socialist policy. huge workshops and shunting yards at nearby Temple Mill have provided the bread and something like £80,000 each. butter and industrial training for thousands of its popula- for scrap on sidings at Stratford. tion since the first railways over Bow Bridge were built in 1840, making Stratford the gateway to the east of England.

Now with the threatened closure of the workshops in November 1962, Stratford is in danger of becoming a ghost says the committee's treasurer town of back-to-back houses, Fred Bint. built in the industrial developments of the 19th century, and a vast museum of workshop paid in interest rates on the money buildings and miles of railway loaned to buy the ex-sharetrack—a town without a heart.

The 'Save Your Railway Com- which should be made.' mittee' formed at the Stratford works to fight the closures is con- bombshell to many railwaymen vinced that the Beeching plan is and feelings are bitter against the a gigantic fraud designed to dis- BTC. mantle the nationalised railways and hand them back, remodernised, apprenticeship as a boilermaker to private enterprise. 23 years ago at Stratford. In 1959, when the changeover from Most Modern steam to diesel electrics took John Bushell, an examiner at the place, he and 40 other boilerworks and a member of the makers were persuaded to be recommittee put it this way: 'Since trained as electrical and engineer1958 something like £750,000 has ing fitters. been spent at Strafford to make Now as a member of it the most modern diesel repair he is unable to do any shop in the world. work except loco repairs.

• Plant and machinery has been installed and new transformer we were assured of permanent stations are still being built, employment. So I took a mortalthough the closure date has been gage on a house near Southend, announced. We don't think this knowing I could travel on a is being done blindly? raiiway warrant.

Railway workers are particularly bitter over the way lucrative con- £4 round my neck for the house, tracis have been given to com- à wife and two children to supparies like Drash, English Doctric port and no proseci of a job in and AEl, which have milked the either of my trades in that area, railways' revenue. I don't Icrow what I shall do?

Examples are given of how it is impossible to carry out minor of workers, like sheetmetal worker repairs to replace, for instance, Ted Allen, who live in railway worn carbon brushes in cab heater property in and around Stratford. fan units for 1s. 6d. because They have SO far received no contracts stipulate that the com- assurances from the BTC that they plete unit must be returned and won't be evicted. replaced at a cost of £4 each.

Spares which have been ob- fnding work for skilled workers tained direct from manufacturers are discouraging. diesel repair shop at Stratford: modernisation for denationalisation classic example of the Baby Deltic are only 630. locomotives purchased 18 months Stratford people are also worried ago from English Electric for because of rumours that the docks labour force is to be reduced Seven of these are now lying under the Rochdale scheme from 27,000 to 14,000. Two of the New projects are purchased in biggest docks, the Royal Group vast quantities by the BTC before and East India fall in the borough sufficient testing has been under- of West Ham of which Stratford is a part.

'If a thorough investigation was There are also a number of carried out it would not take long closures in local chemical factories to trace the 'loss' of £130 million in the area. claimed last year by the BTC, Fred Dickerson was one of the many I spoke to at Stratford Employment Exchange, who has Interest Rates been out of work on and off all 'To start with, £110 million was this year. A member of the NUMGW and a fitter by trade, he worked for many years on shipping until laid off last year. holders. That is the first economy Alarmed at the situation, the local Labour Council has protested The closures have come as a against the closure of the workshops and has condemned the Tory government and demanded Take Sam Green who started his that the workshop remain open. " Inside the workshops the men feel they have been sold down the river by the unions—particularly ' We no longer have any confidence in such people who conduct secret talks with the BTC and never inform us what is really happening' the ETU electrical Reject Sackings Ted Watson, Convenor of the 'When we accepted re-training ETU shop stewards complained, • Instead of discussing unemployment and compensation payments, the unions should be discussing employment and rejecting the sackings.' "Now with weekly payments of The Committee is now preparing a campaign to mobilise support against the railway clo sures and sackings.

Said NUR member, Tommy Hopkins: 'Already we have done The same fear haunts hundreds much work but we want to broaden our fight to get the support of all those workshops threatened with closure and the others like Doncaster and Swindon who will be next on the chopping block. The Tories won't stop at In Strafford the prospects of 18,000? - - ADVERTISEMENT Six Great Speeches by Fidel Castro nly 10s. to keep informs Write for free brochure:

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