ED print unions and the EETPU called by the TUC last week failed. claimed to be 'ill and unable to attend the meeting', but the electricians would meet Murdoch for discussions week he announced Last Thursday, only verore ine print strike was called, lne truth emerged: Hammond had been complicit in Murdoch's dirty dealings all along. Thursday's Financial Times leaked the content of a confidential document presented meeting the day before.
On 30 September at a meeting between the print unions, EETPU national officer responsible for Fleet Street, denied accusations that members of the electricians union were being recruited to work at Wapping. The evidence of this was offered to last week's meeting: two fake job applicatrom an NGA member posing as a Southampton electrician, the other from an AUEW member posing as a Glasgow electrician.
The NGA member received an apGrays Inn Road and Bouverie Street. It was In lal agal Inal une us and SOGAT finally found themselves last Friday with no option but to call their members out on strike.
plication form, Hammond Southampton AUEW hours plate-making (traditionally the electricians union.
The TUC exist' between the EETPU Tom Rice, the public pronouncements though they are doch.
their compliments of the EETPU secretary; the member was referred to the home address of the EETPU secretary for his area. At an interview conducted in the presence of O'Hanlon, the EETPU secretary, the AUEW member was told he would be required to undertake an NUA job) and to leave the AUEW and join TUC confidential document concludes that an 'an arrangement does and Murdoch. The leaked TUC document gives clear evidence indeed that the EETPU's damning - bear no relation whatsoever to the real situation which exists between the electricians and MurThere is more behind this than simply the future of the print unions, members' jobs and conditions. Together with Rupert Murdoch, Eric Hammond is pioneering an entirely different form of trade unionism in Bri"SECURITY?...
NO MATE, THAT'S Previous issues of Socialist Action have highlighted the reality for unions which lies behind the introduction of legally binding agreements: the decimation of trade union strength, as witnessed in countries like the United States and West Germany; and, along with that, the absolute reduction in the power of the trade union movement to defend its members' jobs and interests.
Make no mistake, that is the real significance of the Wapping deal and the EETPU's complicity. The actions of Hammond are a short fuse on the future of the whole trade union movement in this country, as the SOGAT PORTAN Rupert Murdoch's ability to what he wants is still in doubt.
EETPU is already out on a limb within the trade union movement for going as far as it has. Its traditional 'new realist' partner, the AUEW, itself critical of the deal which Hammond is angling for. But the actions of Ine saru ao lo a lesser extent. lasi week's TUC offer to Murdoch (which he rejected), take all unions down a road that can only end with the installation of bosses unions in every single maustry "'M AFRAID IT'S BAD NEWS | HAMMOND, YOUR SIX MONTH PROBATIONARY PERIOD get The has expressed dirty history same Mr number new plants.
communications deal scotched electricians' underhanded, lakel.
"because he had prepared with a precision and efficiency absent from most Fleet Street managements in the past. He has done so coldly and cynically, secretly and deviously, anticipating successfully the moves of the other actors in the drama. This weekend, Fleet Street changed - not by attrition, not by marginal shifts, certainly not by negotiation - by fiat.
The article goes on to outline the of Wapping. It was Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil who propos ed to Murdoch that he should designate Wapping a green-field site and hence open it up to new agreements with ant unions Murdoch chose. And it was the Neil who was 'among a of advisers who steered Mr Shah in the direction of the electricians ... to get a no-strike deal for his Mr Shah, approached by the EETPU through Mr John Grant, its director, and Lord Harris (associated with the Docklands development scheme), like Mr Grant a prominent member of the SDP, began talks and ultimate v reached agreemen in the middle of last year.' "It is a matter of judgement,' concludes the financial limes. 'how far the negotiations over the past weeks ge nuinely failed, or were assumed by Mr Murdoch to be bound to fail so that his audacious strategy of moving to Wapping with all four titles could be tested Hammond is implicated up to his neck in Murdoch's plans to smash the print unions. And this fact poses the trade union movement in Britain with a double task. First it must ensure that Murdoch's union-bashing scheme - by organising the massive industrial solidarity necessary to ensure that the News International workers' strike succeeds. Second, and no less important, the scabbing actions of Hammond must be stopped once and for all.
It must be made crystal clear to the deader that their anti-union behaviour will no longer be tolerated by any other Disciplinary action must be That means forcing them to break their links not only with Murdoch and his ilk, but also with the scabs in the movement's own ranks such as the UDM and its ilk.
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HAS'NT WORKED OUT" CEMEN