THE BRITISH Rail Board has come up with the grand sum of two per cent in the current wage round in the railway industry. The Board is out to make railworkers work harder in exchange for the shrinking value of our pay packets. That's nothing But lne twist in this year's wage round is how the Board is tying its offer to the effects of the miners' Board puts the price tag LOR sondarily action taken by rail£230 workers insists it's up to railWOrKerS to make this Accept two per cent, the Board is saying, or we'll lose coal traffic for good and that will involve enormous oo losses Nothing be further from the truth. Ihe fact is that the Board's most recent corporate pial for the industry had already slated (all overall increase in jobs of 1l to 12 IT IS OBVIOUS that the local government fightback, widely hailed by some on the left, is falling apart at the seams. Just what went wrong!
option developed by Ted Knight and Ken Livingstone was flawed in two major respects, which were exposed immediately in the absence of any leadership prepared to fight.
it split the two tiers of local government in England, putting the GLC metropolitan counties in the firing line, while the rest looked on from the sidelines.
Second, they fell straight into Jenkin's trap by looking only at councils threatened witn ratecapping, ignoring other Inner-cIll councis who were just as badly hit by financial penalties.
Basically, the no-rate tactic, by focussing only on ate-capper authorities, tiled. It concentrated on: orun ol councis manv ol whom were not prepared o fight back The base line for th united front was being prepared confront government and face illegKinnock wavered between sell-out luke-warm support. with Cunningham his shadow environment explain the real leader. ship line of 'make cuts and stay in office.
Among those Labour leaders associated with the none can have calvan. been so ruthlessly exposed Ken He Livingstone. must shoulder major for the GIC deadle share of the ponsibility With most of the public unton caders strangely silent, it was left to Arthur Scargill to the only clear lead. At the Chesterfield rally on er cent by 1989 - abou 1,000 jobs - even before ring for an battles prebattle railworkers. The very day after the miners decided to return to work, Fleet Street confidently rail predicted thal LOC unions were next in line for conronlalon WILl •LIC government. Media reports are claiming regularly that much coal traffic has left the railways for good.
NUR guard The Talondie this scheme? It is a pure SIlEDIC cision to put a stop to the close links between railworkers and miners.
this campaign to make railworkers think that any loss of traffic their responsibility, there is poorly paid workforce which puts in long hours of work. This year's pay claim tries to tackle these problems.
The tactics adopted were disastrous. The no-rate Women's Day he called on women from the mining communities fight to save the cities.
Apart isolated acts defiance councillors, the trade unons must now step into the front line to defend jobs services. The importance of joint union organisation, such London Bridge and Liverpool joint shop stewards committee, will become ever more evident.
Newham NALGO The call by these two bodies for a national combine of local government shop stewards should be supported by all public secactivists.
This will be launched at a Saturday We Marca erpool. need to inter-union link level.
The reality is that there will not be any sackings or obvious large-scale service cuts this year. But that does not mean no cuts in jobs and services It will be the unions' job to expose the hidden cuts and the hvpocrisv o councillors to WOe! audience We musi understand that those who want to fight the lories all the way are a minority -but a bigger minority than Kinnock and Cunningham believe.
The priority over the next months must be strengthening and building the Federation of ASLEF and the National Union of Railwaymen, it calls for a Increase bring railworkers for tio0 basic 1975 levels; wage; for a 35-hour week;
for five weeks' holiday.
Most grades in the industry would need 25 to 30 per cent increases if our purchasing power to be In fact Prade. nOW find themselves week worse off than the notoriously low paid agricultural workers!
Overtime plagues the industry as a direct result of the low Railworkers warts. 51.2 hours each week, with over of the LOTCO working overtime regularly.
Strong feeling exists in the industry that these conditions can't Most railworkers are disgusted with the 4.9 per awarded last year. it's true the Board backed down on tying pay to productivity then, we • were that minoritv. For a start. local government unions must develop strong organ isation capable of exposing all cuts to union members and the wider community.
This campaign must be taken into the where there large core of party activists who want to fight back, but who find it difficult to develop the arguments against councillors who are backea up by senior management in attempting to confuse and distort the cuts taking place.
important remember that in London every borough councillor is up for election in May '86. We need to develop new candidates for council elections who will be accountable policy.
Those councillors who will fight must be ported and brought into joint activity with and trade union members. The role of the Campaigr Group of MPs should be developed to bring pressure to bear on the leaders have less than a We year to turn the minority into a majority to save the cities.
refusing to set a rate. badly let down leadership who failed to hold out for a decent living wage This year British Rail is pushing forward range productivity measures.
Railworkers have made THE PAY battle at the firm of Colman Fastners took a new turn last week.
One hundred and fifty engineering workers have now been on strike for two weeks an attempt improve appalling wage rates. Skilled engineers at the firm £103.50 per week, while machine operators get just £88.60.
But when the company called for a meeting at the offices of the Engineering Employers' Association last Friday, it wasn't to improve on their miserable 5 per cent offer. Instead, the company talked in vague terms about the damage the strike was causing to the business and ahout the possible loss of jobs that could ensue, withdrew their original offer and made a thinly veiled threat to use the law against the strikers.
Under the Tory government's legislation, unions lose their immunity from legal suits TONY Benn joined Liverpool city councillors and Merseyside county council leader Keva Coombes on the / March democracy dav demonstration in the town. Over 10,000 turned out to show their support for the city, which is standing firm and UNITED STAND SOL10W 1HE99 SINING EXAMPLE clear their opposition to ally necolalons wilalsoever productivity dational umon conlerences for the past two years running. If the executive holds the line on these decisions, industrial action could well occur on the railways.
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