in London, Coventry, Birmingham and Glasgow won 75% support. This was followed by a further four-day strike from 27 to 31 May, which, UCW leaders claimed, won 80% support. Some offices have, however, been kept open by managers.
But the key to success would be action from other sectors of UCW members. Militants in the union are arguing that only all-out action can win a decent pay deal for given the ailure of previous one day strikes.
Anti union laws
But UCW leader Alan Tuffin insists on respect for Tory anti-union laws, meaning that the counters strike has had a structural weakness from the start.
No further action is currently planned - the future of "the dispute is to be discussed at the ÜCW strike committee on June 4.
A defeat for the counter staff would be a green light for the Post Office manage ment to precs on with it's anti union offensive. Now is the time tor postal workers to reverse this trend through united, all-out action. The state of the construction industry is usually seen as a barometer of the economy as a whole. Given the current dire state of the industry, talk of the recession ending is clearly absurd and building workers face tough times ahead.
100,000 construction workers face losing their jobs this year. This is on top of the thousand jobs already shed by Direct Labour Organisations (DLOs). So-called self-emploved building workers are earning far less than official union rate of E160 a week. Added to this, the industry's health and safety record has deteriorated so badly that deaths are at a near postwar high.
It is in this climate that the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) is receiving more press coverage than at any time since the national strike in 1972. cause the UCATT leadership is campaigning on behalf of construction workers. The press coverage concentrates on alleged ballot-rigging by the right and the subsequent swing to the left in the recent elections for the executive committee of the Even before last month's Dispatches programme, 'The Ballot Fixers' on Channel 4, it was common knowledge that the rightwing in the union had a corrupt history of ballot-rigging in elecMong.
That the Broad Left has now won control of UCATT is a sign that the eighth largest TUC affiliate is moving in the right direction. Undoubtedly the new leaders have struggled hard to expose the ballot-rigging that has kept them out of office in the past. But the problem is with the vay in which this fight was conducted. The use of the courts and the media has left the rank and file out of the fight to democratise the union.
SOCIaLLS