Support Glencroft mass pickets!
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-10-01Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 15 →
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AFTER two months there is very little change on the picket lines where 15 women at Glencroft Knitwear, Glasgow, are fighting sackings.
National Union of Hosiery and Knitwear officials say that they are 'happier this week'. It is difficult to work out why. The union officials see 'everything as hinged on the possibility of an ACAS tribunal', but Glencroft boss Leon Newman refuses to have anything to do with ACAS.
And whatever the findings of a tribunal, it has no power to restore the jobs. We cannot afford to have any illusions in ACAS.
Initiatives
Fresh initiatives are long overdue. There has been no new delivery of yarn this week, but everyone suspects that Newman got two weeks' supply last week. He is able to continue production with scab labour.
The women have received strong support when speaking at various union meetings, but the NUHKW is still failing to take the initiative to organise more meetings.
Blacking at airports and the washing plant is central to winning the dispute. So far airport unions have only "promised every assistance' and the women than promises.
The workers who wash the yarn for Glencroft are still refusing to support the women. The difficulty is that the washing plant is in an area of high unemployment, and there have been recent redundancies there.
This should be countered by the union by organising a fightback against redundancies and linking that struggle the one at Glencroft.
Newman is now calling in the police for the least thing, like where the pickets stand. And the police are more ready to cooperate with Newman.
More people are still needed for mass pickets, which are continuing, probably weekly.
Messages/money: Glencroft Knitwear dispute, c/o NUHKW, 44 Kelvingrove St, Glasgow G3 7RZ.