A STANDING OVATION greeted miners' leader Arthur Scargill as he entered the Bridlington hall where over 300 delegates and observers from the rail industry assembled last weekend. The miners' strike was a central concern of this annual conference of guards and shunters, the strongest section of the National Union of Railwaymen.
If there was one point delegates agreed on, it was that our recentlyconcluded wage settlement - an increase of between 4.9 to 5.6 per cent with no productivity strings • was the direct result of the miners' struggle.
Marylebone guard As Doreen Weppler, delegate from West Ham branch, argued: "This climb-down by British Rail occurred because the Tory Kings Cross station where jobs are threatened government made decision that would avoid a united fight by miners and railworkers at any cost.' Delegate after delegate expressed disgust with the leadership's acceptance of a measly 4.9 per cent for guards. The miners' struggle put railworkers in the strongest position ever to push fight against the drastic drop in recent years. cauc awar golden opportunity to fight.
But even if a wage settlement has been won, the major battles dustry lie ahead. Management now plan …to orve ahead exercises. wanl MOre work from fewer workers.
alone. over 36,000 jobs have been lost in the in dustry.
Nuclear Arthur Scargill explained railworkers al c faced with the same problems as miners. "The mining and railway industries are inextricably linked and per cent rail freight depends on the coal Sala Crossley, Miles Platting pointed Dranci OU l another common interest - opposition to the Tories policy to promote the nuclear industry at the expense of coal.
'The nuclear flasks are dangerous. Guards shunters have no wav Ol knowing if we are being contaminated with radiation. The results appear only in future years, and in future generations. As long as we can't ensure safety, we should not go near the nuclear flasks.
As Daryl Hillgrove West Ham branch put it: "The transport of nuclear waste will never be safe. Our safety will onl be guaranteed if the Tor nuclear energy policy is re jected and country's energy comes from coal.
The number one battle for railworkers in the coming months is over the in.
'Driver Only Operation' (DOO).
'productivity
cite threatens the entire claud Working conditions, safety and job losses are at stake The message was: we won't have it. Lobby unanimously agreed on course of action to keep the union committed to take no part in any talks involving productivity.
Rose Knight Kings Cross No 1 branch called on delegates organise a lobby of the coming union conterence against productivity talks and DOO. And she called for the guards conference to be 'urgently reconvened should any depot be involved t against productivity schemes' VOTE THURCHE press conference Left to right: Jim Thakoordin, Paul Sharma, Mark Wodsworth, and Billy Poh at the