light.
The form is designed to obtain information on BT workers' Dollical activities The Ford Central branch of the TGWU (1/1107) has published it (See box). Ford deny any collusion between themselves They say the first woman wa. sacked for bad references (but refuse to disclose the reasons) and the second for not declaring her university degree.
Originally, Ford maintained it did not employ graduates on line produc tion work. KiLDecause that is so evidently false (the union's district official, Steve Hart, has a Cambridge degree worked on the line for eight years) they changed their story.
They now say it is the failure to disclose the information which they obCorrectly, the union maintain there is no obligation to reveal qualifications which have no bearing on the work performed.
If there were any doubts before about the sackings, the evidence of the BT form clearly reveals systematic political vetting by the BT bosses and col lusion by Ford. The company, however, claims it discovered the woman's degree by telephoning around the universities.
The union does not believe management's story and a 'failure to agree' was officially registered with the com pany at the woman's final appeal on Monday.
official recognition has not been easy to achieve. It required the combined effort of the PTA Shop Stewards Com mitte to guarantee the rea issue of blacklisting woulc be raised in the final appeal. Ana aespile huge suspport for the strike, official backing was dropped the next day under pressure from the company.
Shop stewards are furious with the union official.
Ford bosses extremely unhappy about being caught with their fingers in the till.
that in effect it 'A' AND 'B' SHIFTS in the sealer deck in the paint, trim and assembly plant at Ford, Dagenham voted to stop work on Monday 21 April against the victimisation of a woman new starter. The strike reinforces the position of the branch leadership who maintained that the woman, and another woman sacked earlier, were dismissed for their previous union activities in British Telecom (BT). As a result of the union campaign a secret BT form has come to reopens the case of the first woman sacked by the - conbally.
They will use anything they can and anyone they can to help them reverse the gains made by the The PTA Shop Stewards Bulletin has already warned the workforce that Fords may use the red-baiting trick.
Ford bosses obscure the real nature of the sackings and the kind of blacklist they operate.
University degrees, lateHICSS. HICSS. records, red-baiting, bad undisclosed prison references - these are the excuses they use. It is all a smokescreen. In fighting to defend the rights of its new members the TGWU branch has performed a service to the whole labour MOVCHICHL Had they lay down and played dead not only would they have created a precedent for Ford bosses to weed out union ac tivists, but the scale of organised victimisation b BT and Ford would have lain buried. This is now a national political issue based on concrete evidence of collusion bet ween two major com paniews to vet thei employees' activities Whatever information is held by the BT unions should now be brought out into the open, and a campaign waged to defend the right of workers to be ac tive in their union.
Of course, such a cam paign will meet fierce resistanci Our bosses. It will generate red-baiting reaction in the national press which will be backed by the govern. ment. Its aim will be to establish employers to control wha groups workers can join what newspapers magazines we car subscribe to, what idea we can express and who we can associate with. like every bully the bosse will pick on the weakest That is just what Ford tried to do with new starts But they didn't reckon or a fight from the unior branch continuing.
VICTORY TO THE