Trade unionists at Magnet in Darlington have been on strike for seven months now. Pete Firmin for Socialist Outlook talked to IAN CRUMMOND, secretary of the strike committee, who represents 340 workers sacked for taking industrial action against the company. SO: What is the current state of the dispute?
IC: We are still mounting a 24nour pickctine, / days a week, but we are down to 180 on strike. We have a strong picket line and a good delegation team, though we could do with more people. Our national support is really starting Locally it is still at a low level — hopefully that will improve after the support conference on March 1. We are leafleting most of Magnet's major retail outlets, asking people not to buy Magnet kitchens SO: Tell us about the women's support group?
IC: The women's support group is modelled on the Liverpool Women on the Waterfront and the miners women's support groups They wrote to Beresford's shareholders about the dispute and went down to London to lobby the AGM of Beresford — the publicity from that has been brilliant. They are orgamsing a locat cancans campaign. They play an active part in the day-to-day work of the strike committee, gathering information, writing to people, talking to SO: What support have you had from the different unions involved?
IC: There are four unions in volved - TGWU, GMB, UCATT and ABEU. Early on they played a low key role. Unions are there to settle disputes by negotiation. When one party won't negotiate they are at a loss as to what to do. They took a back scat and didn't dispute. They paid strike pay, bur tormadon and support i gencral were of a very low standard. Now things are getting a lot better.
The TGWU is giving us full support. They pay strike pay, have donated £10,000 to the strike fund, set up delegation work, and provided an us with an office in Middlesbrough.
The UCATT regional official initially took a high profile on the picket line, but that gradually died UCATT is financially poor, but we have had some good physical support. We have been up to UCATT meetings in Scotland ship in the Hull and York arcas. A UCATT support group in Sheffield has put on benefits for us and organised meetings.
As regards physical support, UCATT has been the best union, they have done a tremendous amount of leafleting and meetings. Their support outside the retail outlets has been very important The GMB branch has been very helpful financially and physically. I don't want to get into a slanging match, but the union nationally should have been. We came out in support of tacit memocts, and really the support should be dividual members of the GMB have been very supportive finan. cially, but it is the union hierarchy that is one of the problems.
The ABEU was least represented among the strikers. There are — to my knowledge - only a couple of AEEU members still on strike. Support from the AEEU has been very low key, both financially and physically. The full-time offi cial does attend the picket line freshments, but he doesn't do any. thing to tell ABBU members nationally about the dispute. strike committee with all four unions involved on an equal basis, but at the moment it is top heavy with those who were going to get a pay rise and had no real need to be out on strike. Forging links with different unions and disputes, the Magnet strikers have an eye to prospects for strikes to come Any strike needs primarily two kinds of support - financial and nhysical, We can stand outside with a collecting bucket forever as orwar were tad physical pressure on the company turn to work.
UCATT and the TGWU, are starting to get themselves more into ine nabit of neiping. we are struggling a little bit at the moment, but we will come through and we will win. SO: What support have you had from other Magnet factories IC: It's been very poor. We're been very disappointed with those union members in the other Magnet factories who have not supported us, basically because they've got a job. They got a pay rise of 3 per cent, the same as what we wanted, they accepted it just as we would have done. I have no problem with that. The problem is their lack of physical and financial support for us. It should be there as of right that any trade unionist that works for a firm gets the support of the members who work for the sametirm. Weunderstand they are worried about their jobs, but 340 of their colleagues need their sup port. There are four other Magnet factories, they are collecting money on a irregular basis, Icvy, then we could maintain the picket line on a rexular basis. wo are not condemning them or blaming them, but we need their support, and we are putting pressure on them to give it. SO: Would you tell us about the links you have built up with the Liverpool dockers and the Hillingdon hospital workers?
IC: We linked up with the dockers carly on in the dispute. We had. n't heard about the dockers or the Hillingdon workers until just before we went on strike.
The dispute I feel most angry about is the Hillingdon workers. We came out for a pay'claim, the theirsons" jobs, but the Hillingdon workers were sacked for doing nothing - not asking for a pay rise, not wanting to change their