Sold Down the River- but More Determined Than Ever !

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PHOTO: JOHN SMITH (IFL)

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LAURENCE SCOTTS their fight for jobs de outs and court writs. P.

"THE most grievous bloody thing about this is the way the AUEW and the Confed have sold us down the river"

That was the general view at the 400-strong mass meeting of Laurence Scotts workers on Monday morning 10th August.

Bailiffs

But, as convenor Dennis Barry told Socialist Organiser. there is now greater commitment than ever by the workers occupying Laurence Scotts to prevent closure.

The meeting agreed to remain in occupation until the bailifts arise, not to resist physically, but to continue to picket the factory and prevent movement of the £2 million worth of work still inside.

Ine writ served

workers are continuing ¡pite union leaders' sell ,UL MUDDLE reports.

workforce last Wednesday, 4th, came in the wake of the union leaders' betrayal. Official backing was withdrawn when Ls owner Arthur Snipe put forward insulting "settlement' proposals - a reprieve for three months, on a 2-day week!

Now not only the AUEW but also other Confed unions, including the I&G have stopped strike pay and told their members to return to work.

Pickets

A campaign is needed now to condemn the Confed union leaderships, to get tinancial support for the workers, and to give practical backing on the picket lines.

* Messages/money: ISSC c/o George Fryer, 20 Round Crott, Romilly, Cheshire. "I'VE PUT all the compromises to them I can think of, and I don't know how we can go from there" , said rail union leader Sid Weighell after talks with BR bosses.

No amount of wriggling will get round the fact that BR is simply refusing to pay an official arbitration award. And rank and file railworkers are strongly supporting the unions' call for a strike from August 30th.

£58 basic 'Railman' grade workers get a basic £58.75 a week. They have to work an average 52 hours a week for a living wage, and BR workers" overall average work-week is about one-third longer than railworkers anywhere else in western Europe.

The arbitration award -11%, in two stages - Will do no more than stop this miserable standard of living being made much worse by inflation. Yet BR bosses are demanding a productivity deal as their condition even for 11%. rail strike The deal would mean 38,000 redundancies over the next five years.

Railworkers need to organise now, to prepare for the strike, and to stop Weighell thinking of even more and worse compromises!

NGA General Secretary Joe Wade has called upon Pergamon| Press boss Robert Maxwell to negotiate with the NUJ.

Nine journalists have been on strike at Pergamon for 22 weeks. But NGA members at the Oxford firm continue to cross the picket lines, despite the fact that part of the dispute is over the NUJ chapel's insistence on an agreement which would protect NGA jobs against new technology.

Donations and messages should be sent to Strike Committee, 5 Union Street, Oxford atta