Real thing
In the last issue Low Down whinged about the pay of Gic chairman Lord Weinstock is four hundred thousand is nothing; the chief executive of Coca Cola earns £3: million a year, according to figures released last week.
Loony
Loony right 'libertarian' Tory MP Teresa Gorman has made a practical demonstration of her contempt for the all-powerful state. She appears on Monday before Camberwell magistrates charged with speeding, driving without a license or insurance.
Workhouse
More on the loony right. Pet Thatcherite economist Prof. Patrick Minford comes clean in last Monday's FT. Victorian workhouses, he says, 'were very enlightened for the time' and could be revived to cut public spending. The learned professor also likes the Sun.
Enlightened
As the Manchester Piccadilly sackings show, BR is a very enlightened employer. Rail worker of 46 years Alex Bryson discovered this when he went out for a lunch-time half of shandy on his last day before early retirement. He got sacked, losing his £20,000 golden handshake.
Eventually he was reinstated. But colleague Andy Lockwood (30 years service) WnO naoSTr caanew savs cackeda Meanwhile a corruption trial at the Old Bailey has been hearing of the lavish bribes (booze, fags, slap-up meals, trips abroad, that sort of thing) doled out to BR executives.
Integrity
One of the remarkable things about British capitalism is the integrity of its public life. Two examples came up this week.
The US senate sub-committee investigating the collapse of the BCCI bank, which resulted in tens of thousands of people losing their all, found that the Bank of England 'colluded with the suppression of the true taroTA nk nanom tac ra taci it was widely used to launder drug money.
And last week an accountant working for the Serious Fraud Office on the BCCI case was jailed for trying to sell documents to one of the suspects.
Panic
Thousands of Italians withdrew their savings from banks in a panic last week amid rumours that the government was going to freeze deposits. Rich families with suitcases full of cash headed for Switzerland. Others crossed into France to open deposit accounts denominated in French francs.
Cynic
Outlook's computers have a very inteligent spell-checker. Alternative spellings it flags up are 'cynie' for Kinnock, mont and even more bluer for Blair.
Nuclear shit
In April the sewage plant at the Trawsfynydd nuclear station twice overflowed intó a nearby stream, according to the Health and Safety executive. Why does a nuclear plant have its own sewage works; and why is it a potential nuclear hazard? Presumably there is something about the workers' natural discharges which means it has to be segregated. the odds TRADE unions are down but a long way from out, two new industrial relations demonstrate. Resiliance is most marked in the public sector, with union influence private manufacturing.
The results of the semi-official 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey -sponsored by the Departand ment of Employment, the Economic and Social Research Council, Studies Institute and conciliation service Acas - have just been released.
Union membership in the national declined from 58 per cent in 1984 to 48 majority of workers, pared to 66 per cent in 1984, by Bab Smith STRIKERS at Burnsall melal lnishind Smethwick near Birmingham - now out for 17 weeks - have called a demonstration and tally in conjunction with their union GMB, the local black community and the labour movement, A date has not yel been finalised.
GMB general secretary
John Edmonds and his TGWU counterpart Bill Morris have both agreed to speak.
The two unions, now holding exploratory merger discussions, are to start a loint recrultment campaion in metal finishing plants in the area.
Pay, hours, conditions
and health standards are some of the worst in 'lament' for La- with very few politically astute, workplaces organisad. Typical wages are £100 for a 40 hour week.
The strikers recelved a boost last week with a vicfory in the courts alter six of them faced a frame-up, A scab mutilated himsalf after a heated discussion on the dispute and claimed strikers had done IL.
The police as usual supported his claims, then are still unionised. The figure is 43 per cent for nonmanual workers surveys (1984:51 per cent).
Since workplaces with fewer than 25 employees are excluded from the surweakest in vey, these may be overestimates of up to 10 percentage points. Numbers of workers covered by collective bargaining arrangements, and shop stewards, shops, and strike days are all fewer. the Policy Some 13 per workplaces are still 100 per cent unionised (1984: 18 per cent). The closed shop still workforce covers 4 per cent of manual workers. Some 10 per cent of per cent. manual workplaces experienced a 51 per cent com- strike (1984: 19 per cent), with pay the main issue. found they could not create any evidence. The case collapsed in court. in Channel Four, Guardian and Independent lournallsts have now discovered the dispute, and the increased media profile can only help embarrass firms like Jaguar that still deal with Burnsall, and may even provoke secondary action. Tribunals for equal pay, unfair dismissal, deducfions and iniury compensation look well placed, with Bursall bosses not having a leg to stand on, Unfortunately the Socialist Workers Party have been excluded from Friday evening solidarity meetings. GMB official Jo Quicley took exception to their idoom and gloom' perspective on the dispute and their portrayal of him as a seif-seeking, cynical bureaucrat. The SWP's solidarity effort has been very suc. cessful, bringing in lots of cash and messages of support. But secondary action and mass pickets have never been on GMB's agenda. Donations, messages of support, speakers from Jo Quigley, Witt Thorne House. 2 Birmingham Road, Halesowen, B63 ЗНР. 021 550 4888, SPUT B ATU Burnsall: struggle at the point of production This figure, however, reached 25 per cent in the public sector - mainly in local higher education - but was just 3 per cent of private sector workplaces. About one third of strikes involve picketing, considerably more than in 1984. closed cent of still covers 54 per cent, down from 71 per cent. According to WIRS, unions are still recognised for collective bargaining in 53 cent of workplaces, with marked declines in engineering and the print. Yet some of the WIRS findingsare contradicted by Hang about, I'll just get my wallet. I would like to take out a subscription to Socialsr Outlook. I enclose £. 1 EC Europe (including Britain): 1 year's subscription (24 I issues): £15 • Six months' subscription (12 issues): £8 D I Non-EC Europe: 1 year £20 C Six months £11 O 1 Rest of the World: 1 year f24 • Six months £13 O 'I'd like to know more about Socialist Outlook D "I include a donation of €.... ,Name. 1 Address.
La cross-Europe survey by Cranfield business school and accountants Price and Waterhouse, which found that seventy per cent of larger British employers still recognise unions. This figure is broadly in line with the European average. The preliminary findings state: 'The much-vaunted predictions of the terminal decline, or even death, of the trade union movement seem, to say the least, much exaggerated' The three year comparative study of 12 European per countries embraced 5,500 workplaces with over 200 employees in both the private and public sectors. However, in many cases, only a minority of staff are unionised. Only in Denmark, Spain, Ireland and Portugal found more than have of respondents reporting union density of over 50 per cent. The UK figure is closer to 40 per cent. British bosses take more industrial relations decisions independently of headquarters than their continental counterparts, with a higher degree of centralisation evident in southern Europe. Subscription rates Return to Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU' _..___ . . No. 29 10 Oct. 1992
Kiranjit Ahluwalia was released on Friday September 25 after having served three years in jail for the 'murder' of her husband. An Appeal Court accepted her plea of guilty to manslaughter after, at her original trial having been found guilty of murder. But Kiranjit Ahluwalia is not the only woman who has socialist BETWEEN A LIFE SENTENCE FOR A PROBATIONARY SENTENCE By. Tike & Ness.
Th: '92
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