Still No Deal in Sight at Lee Jeans

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STAN CROOKE looks at some of the problems facing the Lee Jeans occupiers as they await the outcome of talks between the owners, Vanity Fair, and potential buyer Nigel Wright.

- The local Action Com- Wright's back up.

LONDONI ENTRANCE EETPU members lobby their annual conference in support of the Central London OVER a month after the start of talks between London businessman Nigel Wright, owner of the 'Dickie Dirt' jeans stores, and Vanity Fair (VF) Corporation, owner of the occupied Lee Jeans factory near Gourock, agreement is yet to be reached, although rumours abound - still - about its imminence.

VF originally asked for €750,000 for the factory, but have now upped the price to £795,000, on the grounds that they are now prepared to sell the laundry in the factory, which had not been included in the original price.

Final decision

According to reports in Glasgow newspapers Wright has offered £615,000. VF's British representatives have referred his offer, whatever it is, to the corporation's head office in America for a final decision, which should be known by the time this paper appears. (But, on the other hand, a "final decision" has been pending for over a fortnight now)..

The talks have become the focal point of the dispute - and that is now the main problem.

Instead of taking further initiatives to increase the pressure on VF to surrender, or ensuring that initiatives already taken (e.g. blacking at the docks of VF products) are working properly, many of those in the sit-in are unfortunately tending towards passively awaiting a deal being done between Wright and VF.

Subordinated

After over six months in occupation LIC workers obviously have every right to want the deal to go through so that they can start picking up a wage again. But the problem is that any further militant development of the dispute has become subordinated to negotiations between a nouveau riche Londoner and an American multi-national.

- Workers in the occupation don't know what impact, if any, blacking of VF goods at the docks has had, and are also becoming increasingly indifferent to this question - because of focus on the tions.

Deal - A leaflet to be used for shop boycotts has not been produced, nor does one seem to be forthcoming. Again, because the workers' hanor are ninned on Wripht doing a deal. mittee (which, in any case, was only a collection of bureaucrats humming and hahing but organising nothing) has not met for weeks, and there is no interest in building a real action committee to support their fight for jobs. tions, etc. should the deal go through, and such questinne are not heing seriously TY LADIE LIUILD CIN DurIan ,0rT raised in case they get Wright takes the initiaHOTEL tives and VF reacts (insofar as fudging and temporising count as any kind of action at all). Wright opens the talks and makes the offers; VF listens to his propositions and promises to give them the consideration they deserve.

Meanwhile the workers in the sit-in gradually descend into passivity, speculating about the identity of the 'mystery man' who is Wright's partner in the talks, and waiting for the phone call to say a deal has been fixed up. Or to say that the talks have collapsed.

At the same time the NTGWU bureaucrats continue their scandalous role unchecked. . Having taken seven weeks to make the dispute official (claiming that they had not heard about it!), having taken another five weeks before paying the fiver a week strike pay (claiming that they wanted to see whether or not the women were serious before paying up!), the bureaucrats recently withdrew official support and now openly work to kill off the sit-in.

Just before the occupation rota was re-organised to allow one section of the workers to go on holiday whilst the rest kept up the occupation, the union officials suggested that they should all go on holiday at the same time. Management, they claimed, would not dare change the padlocks and lock them out during their absence.

Not taken up Their suggestion was not taken up, so the officials finally argued openly for an end to the sit-in. "Go out with dignity. With your heads held high," one of them advised the women.

In spite of such an attitude (or more exactly: precisely because of it), VF will discuss the sit-in only with national officials from the union, not with any of the shop stewards directly elected by those actually involved in the sit-in. So the women are supposed to rely upon union bureaucrats openly opposed to the occupation to put their case in talks with VF and Wright.

And the union officia have now widened their fie of inaction to Ireland well. Sackings are no taking place in the Iri factories meant to be taki over jeans production fro the Gourock factory, as thi make the change-over fro knitwear (what they ha mainly produced till not to jeans.

Inactive

In one sense the uni officials have linked up t! sackings in Scotland al Ireland: by remaining ina tive in both cases. Unfort nately the Irish shop ste ards do not share the comt tivity of the Gourock wor force: they have suggest that the Gourock worke should make their dema higher redundancy paymer so that they could th claim the same for thi members in Ireland bei sacked.

More treacherou If anything has chang in the last month of t dispute, it is only that t union officials have becor even more treacherous al VF has become even mo bloody-minded abo reaching a deal with Wright But whether or not t deal goes through, serio problems threaten the sitif the deal is fixed up, wt can they extract from Wrig in terms of pay and worki conditions? And if the tal fall through, can the forn level of militancy restored?

on

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