Liverpool strike"turned women into fighters"

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On Tuesday September 22,

200 angry shop stewards representing manual workers employed by Liverpool City Council, turned up for a meeting with Liberal boss Sir Trevor Jones.

They were angry because they weren't getting paid, due to a typists' dispute.

When they arrived at 11 am, they found that Jones had shifted the meeting to 2pm.

The council workers retired for three hours and returned even more angry.

A great effort was made by leading stewards to prevent the delegation from physically confronting the anti-union boss of the council and giving him more than just a verbal seeing-to.

Manual workers in Liverpool realise that the typists' dispute is just the start of a general attack on all council employees as the Liberals with their Tory allies attempt to implement Heseltine's cuts in local authority spending.

The Liberal clique which runs the council thought the confrontation with the 400 women typists would be an easy victory. What they have done instead is to radicalise a traditionally conservative section of low-paid women workers.

The typists dispute started in October last year when NALGO put in a regrading claim which would give typists similar pay to clerks. At present the basic pay for a newly-qualified typist is on a scale of £2,500 to £3,600 per annum. A qualified typist cannot expect to get above £4,000 a year. This contrasts with chief officers' salaries of between £16,000 and £25,000. The regrading claim, essentially one for equal pay, is modest. For example a newly qualified scale of £2,600 to £4,000 per annum. The whole claim could be paid for by ¼p on the rate over the next four years.

Sackings

The pay claim was ignored for eight months so a work-to-rule began. This led to some sackings for refusing to type council minutes.

A meeting of typists was held and on rank-and-file initiative a strike of typists was decided upon.

Many of those who voted against the strike are nevertheless out with the rest. In the words of typists' spokesperson Audrey Moore, "The Liberals have turned nonmilitant women into determined fighters."

Manual

Unfortunately this militaricy has not been shared by other sections of NALGO. Some NALGO members are bosses who left the union after the strike began. The bosses have generally put pressure on other NALGO members to vote against the typists under threat of losing their jobs.

Members of NALGO who have refused to handwrite letters have been suspended. The union leadership has also come under criticism. It has reduced strike pay from £25 to £20 a week and has been slow to call out other sections in support.

This is in stark contrast to the attitude of manual workers. When typists pickets turned up to prevent Securicor delivery of manual workers' wages at a council depot in Dingle, the depot workers actually joined in last picket saying, Now at we can actually do something to support you.' Manual workers have also said We tell our members not to cross picket lines only to find NALGO members doing it. We want to have a levy to support the typists but we can't expect our members to support this unless NALGO have a levy also.' Typists' leaders are of the opinion that the Branch Executive in Liverpool have finally moved their way, with the decision to pay five militant sections of NALGO for strike action next Wednesday. If this happens the strike will be won. Clearly the Liberal political machine in Liverpool, as close to Tammany Hall as the SDP group in Islington, is getting worried.

They have threatened the jobs of the typists and any other council employees who support them.

Liberal

While NUT Branch Secretary Jim Ferguson supported the typists on local radio, he received a letter from Trevor Jones containing veiled threats "as your employer"

The letter was published in the local Liberal mouthpiece the following day in a breach of Press Council rules.

The labour movement can take a great step forward in Liverpool with a victory for the typists. If this fails, sections will be picked on one by one, by the boss politicians who have been using emergency powers to secretly push through all sorts of reactionary legislation during the dispute.

A victory for the typists could also mean a victory for Labour at the polls to clear out the Jones gang once and for all.

Messages/money: c/0

NALGO branch, Duchy Chambers, 24 Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool 1.

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