Screaming Blue
TRAFFIC lights on the ramp of the fortress in Wapping where press baron Rupert Murdoch plans his showdown with the print unions are said to be linked to the light in nearby streets, so scab lorries can run a series of green lights through the
The truth of the story will become seems inevitable — the battle of Wapping begins. It ought to be true since it illustrates the degree of sheer military planning that has gone into this deadly serious attempt to break the Fleet Street unions once and for all.
The Metropolitan police claimed that Insi year's riots at Tottenham had been planned weeks in advance. There were lurid and unsubstantiated reports that garages had been flood-
THE
Murdoch!
By a SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ed with petrol ready to burn
I the Metropolitan police commis sioners are truly worried about preparations for riot they should even now be speeding in squad cars to arrest Murdoch and hs management team. An the pind the barbed ire peat with the of barbed wire that guards military airfields. TV cameras scan the approach roads and vehicles vanish out of sight of the gates before unloading or loading their cargoes. The building includes its own helicopter pad
The plant, built at a cost of about £60m, part of a total investment nearer 1100m, is a testimony to the military style of industrial relations adopted in the coalfields in 1984 and 1985. Murdoch complains half heartedly that negotiations with the print unions broke down over the use of the new plant. The very walls of the building defy any belief that a negotlated settlement was ever on the cards.
The Wapping plant has been years *TIMES Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p3
in the building and years in the planning. The print unions, foolishly complacent in the strength of their organisation in Fleet Street, did nothing to stop its development.
When in September 1985 an BEIPU official in Southampton revealed in Socialist Worker that mass recruitment was taking place in his area to recruit workers for Wapping, the print unions dismissed it as wild rumour and unthinkable. Brenda Dean, SOGAT General Secretary. said she was pleased to say that management had denied the rumous.
In fact recruitment had been going on for weeks and in Scotland a similar process was taking place for workers to fill Murdoch's other fortress, a converted warehouse at Kinning Park in Glasgow.
In both cases the jobs were being filled with the active help of the EBTPU. Local officials in Southampton and Glasgow were used as employment agencies. Job applications were posted to the home addresses of the EETPU officials who sat in on all the job interviews.
In Southampton these jobs were theoretically for Murdoch's planned Daily Post belleves will be printed - and in. a paper nobody NEWS FE WORLD
volved six month contracts for which sums of up to £15,000 were being offered. Also on offer was a free run at 5.00am every day from Southampton to Wapping in a company which picked the workers up inside the gates in the evening and made sure they never had to come face to face with any Fleet Street spies.
Workers accepting jobs in the factory were told that they would not be forced to become members of union, but that if they did so the EETPU would be the union recognised. At this time in theory Murdoch was "'negotiating" through his sidekick
Bill O'Neill with the print unions at the Times, Sunday, News of the World
Negotiations — with a deadline of Christmas were around a document which made four major attacks on the unions. It demanded the end to the closed shop, a legally binding no strike agreement, the chapel structure, and the manage"
The right to manage Included the end to the print union's control of labour, and the right of management to change statfing levels at any time.
The proposis to SOGAT included the following: "New technology may be
adopted at any time with consequen-
tial reductions in manning
ment." ...and There will
demarcation lines".
on offer removed union
altogether trom supervisory
management grades.
The icing on the cake was the pro-
posal for "union democracy"
chapels had been abolished. Union
representatives for the
would be strictly limited in number
and elected annually by secret ballot.
Their duties would not be to repre-
sent their members but to uphold the
no-strike deal. The union is asked to
sign an assurance that it will not pro-
mote, sponsor, engage in, finance or
coach, a The Rt. Hon. Norman Tebbit, MP, (Former imes, sun anc change, but is tackling the problems that can arise. including technical skills training. I see this condone practical any industrial action. the end to "right to appeal. Clause representatives and other got the require- be no . Th five year deal rights and be reads: receives a disciplinary after union representative whole plant representative replace him. table not only
Secretary of State for Industry, present
Chairman of the Conservative Party). *The EEPTU not only accepts technological es apiece with the Union's progressive approach
Ton the shopfloor and elsewhere." strike action and will repudiate as soon as is reasonably
fice, in
Employees who strike will be immediately dismissed without right of
12.3 reads: "It is understood and agreed that unior come
officials proposals. have a special duty to enforce this rection, including the obligation no to engage in any stoppage of work."
Just in case any union official hasn't
message clause 11.3 states: 'No individual who has received any ed blithely on. formal warnings from the Employer under its disciplinary procedure will
eligible for election", and 11]
"If a union representative warning he shall cease at once to hold office as a
Tand a new shall be elected to
This document proved unaccep
Wto SOGAT, NGA AUEW and the NUJ, but also to the action.) London press branch of the EETPU. which tried in the early 1980s to break away from its organisation and Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985p4
international Labour Heports George Harris, Personnel Manager. Toshiba
Consumer Products, "Along with the EEPTU we have charted an exciting new approach that cuts out futile strife and offers fair rewards for all those involved." join SOGAT. The TUC under a Bridiington ruling, forced the members to tay with the electricians
it this point the EETPU head of
Othe shape of national organiser Tom Rice and General Secretary Eric Hammond, stepped into help its London branch over-
oblections to the Murdoch
The TUC has warned print unions not to conclude separate deals with Murdoch, but the EETPU, the blood still fresh on its claws from mauling the TUC over ballot money, plough-
At the time this article was being prepared, SOGAT and the NGA had completed ballots on strike action throughout Murdoch's empire: the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World. Both were confident of large majorities, but seemingly not confident of what to do with those maJoritles. (The first supplement to be printed at Wapping for the Sunday Times was distributed without any
The unions have been forced to come together for the first time in years, and even while still fighting an
internecine war in the provincial press. But the price of that unity has been one concession after another to Murdoch's demands. The no-strike deal has been ruled out by all these unions, but they are offering Murdoch a deal which in Brenda Dean's words would "make strikes very, very unlikely". Murdoch however is no longer interested in unions bowing the knee. He has decided to do without them — except for the figleaf of EETPU involvement.
The mood of the members in Fleet Street has swung from black pessimism towards defiance, but they are nevertheless faced with the unedifying prospect of launching industrial action against a background of a whole new production plant geared up ready to run, on a batteground of the employer's choosing and on a site which is as near picketproot as it is possible to make a building.
The weak point in Murdoch's strategy is likely to be the chain of distribution, which by its nature is vulnerable and difficult to establish.
It would be easy to point to the crimes of the past - not least the failure of the print union leaderships to take Murdoch on when it became clear what he was attempting, and the roadiness of each Fleet Street chapel to look inwards and avoid inter-union solidarity because of its own traditional strength.
The task now however is to draw up a battle plan for fighting Murdoch that will work. Part of that plan will need to be the rapid expulsion of the EETPU from the TUC.
Silentnight strike Small-time Mac Gregor can be beaten!
By Diane Farmer FOR hundreds of families of Striking Silentnight workers. this Christmas could have been very bleak. But as one of the strikers said although a lot of the extras were missing we had a spirit and friendship which made up for it and which we haven't had before." That comradeship has been built up over seven months of one of the bitterest strikes in recent times.
The 500 workers at two different sites in Barnoldswick, Lancs., and in Sutton, Yorks., came out on strike against management's refusal to keep to a no redundancy agreement. The workers had voted to give up their annual pay rise in return for no job losses. Management promptly posted redundancy notices; the workforce walked out, and all 500 were sacked in June.
Because of its geographical isolation and the heel-dragging of the FTAT officials, the strike received virtually no publicity outside Yorkshire and Lancashire until Commember Save then the ding committee been sending speakers out all over the country to build financial and industrial support for the strike.
The FTAT officials are hostile to spreading the strike and to calling for secondary action, as they are afraid of being taken to court for breach of the Tory anti-union laws. FTAT, once a large union has been decimated by the collapse of the furniture industry. The Silentnight strike is probably the Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p5
biggest and most important strike they have had to deal with and the bureaucrats are totally inequipped to give any lead to the workforce.
The most obvious way to win the strike would be to ask other unions to impose a 100% boycott on any dealings with Silentnight and sidiary companies. This would include approaching suppliers of the materials needed to make the beds as well as asking workers in stores which stock the beds not to handle them. This strategy would have brought the company to a standstill months ago.
Most of the solidarity action so far achieved - like the boycott at some ports of the coconut fibre used in the beds — has only come after the strikes pushed the officials to do
This initial action was followed by a meeting between the strikers and the FTAT national officials in an attempt to get them to push for an international boycott of the coconut fibre. The fibre comes from Sri Lanka and the strike committee are trying to get some trade union contacts there who will be sympathetic. The strikers asked for this kind of action months ago — and are still waiting for a report of
Meanwhile the Co-op which is sup posed to be sympathetic to the labour movement voted against implementing a national boycott of Silentnight goods in its decided it would be taking sides and becoming political!
Despite the long drawn-out strike, the freezing cold northern winters and the massive odds against them the strikers are holding firm. No one has gone back into the factory. The picket lines are still continuing on a
Many of the pickets, particulary on the Sutton site, have been subjeced to American style industrial tactics. Scab lorries have drawn up with men threatening the caravan has been wrecked. Some of the pickets have been attacked and some of their wives have been beaten up while walking home.
Tom Clarke the owner is a powerful
and rich Tory and of course the police have yet to arrest anyone for attacking the pickets. These tactics will become increasingly common in Britain as the Tories with their press and media attack trade unionists' right to strike in defence of their jobs and conditions.
Tom Clarke is a small time MacGregor, He shares the same politics but does not have the strength and backing that MacGregor had. This strike can be won.
The order book at the factory is thinner than usual for this time of year. The inexperienced scabs cannot do the skilled work required to produce beds. The rate of returns for shoddy work is far higher than at any other time.
With backing from other workers the factory could be shut down in a matter of a few weeks and Clarke would be forced to negotiate with the workforce on their terms.
Clarke must be getting desperate. This week he accepted an invitation to speak at the local school, where many of the strikers' children go, on "industrial relations"| The strike committee organised a demonstration outside the school with many of the
children joining in.
Support groups for the Silentnight
strike have been set up in many parts
of the country. The strikers need
donations to keep the strike going
and the soup kitchens functioning. ... .... CONFERENCE SATURDAY FEB 22ND 1986 11 am - 5 pm MANCHESTER HELP ORGANISE THE FIGHT
support the Silentnight workers They also need strong industrial sup- port if they are to win. Support groups should be organis- .. ... .... ANTI FASCIST ACTION AFA BACK • Were for deals and credentas tor. Anti-Fascist Action, PO Box 273, Forest Gate, London E7. ANTI FASCIST ACTION Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p6
50
FTATU ing demonstrations and pickets at stores which sell Silentnight beds and they should be talking to union stewards in those stores trying to get them to raise the strike in their workplaces.
Kinnock and Hattersley both promised support to the strikers when they lobbied the Labour Party conference. Neither of course have made a trip up to the area. The TUC has done its usual propaganda statement saying they support, but have done nothing else.
The wonder is not that the strike hasn't won yet but that under the present industrial and economic conditions that workers new to trade unionism came out at all. Trade unionists must raise this strike in their branches and Trades Councils. TGWU, and USDAW branches must send resolutions through to their District and Regional Committees calling on the union to support any boycotting action and must work to get that action.
One of the leading women strikers said "we are still here, we're still fighting. He hasn't done it in seven months, he'll not beat us now." FTAT cannot afford to lost this strike. The Silentnight workers deserve to win it and the labour movement needs a victory-
Cravendale Branch 92 Strike Fund, c/o Ann King, 10 Rainhall Crescent, Barnoldswick, Colne, Lancashire.
EETPU sets the pace for TUC