met John Edmonds, General Secretary of the GMB union which sold out the dispute three months ago.
After an embarrassing mass picket at the TUC conference which called for him to come outside and meet his members Edmonds agreed to go to the GMB's West Midlands office 14 September to meet the strikers and regional officials.
Official support was withdrawn from the dispute by regional organiser Geoff Wheatly because it was not possible to win it within the limits of the current anti-union laws.
Even though the GMB organises within Burnsall's main supDiers. there was no call for a boycott, no mass pickets or reBurnsall's components, many of them used in the car industry The union claimed that if it broke the laws it could be seaustralco - (rails tunes would be seized by the government. But the GMB also claim the strike cost them £200,000. Maybe fighting to winthe strike would Workers at the plant were paid poor working conditions and a seven-day week.
The strikers are demanding that the union supports the 52 industrial inbunals and 12 court cases that have resulted from the strike and the repeated violent assaults staged against the picket line.
They also want strike pay reinstated, mass pickets of the factory; and a GMB call on other TUC affiliates to boycott Burnsall.
Cooperation
They are calling for the GMB to cooperate with the support groups, in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Oxford; and opens an internal enquiry into the runnino of the disoure.
Send messages of support tion to Balvir Singh, 82 Rosefield Road, Smethwick B67 6TX, tel: 021 565 5416. Mail donations to Burnsall Strike Fund, 27 Firsvale Road, Lisdale Park, Birmingham.