NCB's insult Gormley's delay

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Plan McLeish CONVENORS from every subsidiary of British Shipbuilders reaffirmed shipyard workers' determination to support the occupation of Robb Caledon shipyards at a Combine meeting on 24th October.

The CSEU leadership made no such statement. The Shop Stewards committee at Robb Caledon are disgusted by their "silent treatment" , they. are receiving both from British Shipbuilders and the CSEU.

All they know about the yard being hived off to Kestrel Marine is what they have read in the papers and union officials didn't bother to tell them why solidarity action elsewhere was being called off.

They have guessed that it's because the unions wanted "all things to be equal" before approaching ACAS.

They expect to be manoeuvred into this position of accepting the move to Kestrel. The only way they will accept it though, is if the whole workforce guaranteed jobs.

That guarantee does not seem likely since painters and joiners are involved in the occupation and Kestrel doesn't employ those trades. . The workers should know who their prospective employers are soon, with or without a decision from ACAS. The Port Authority will announce on 30th October who the lease for the yard is going to.

For the moment the stewards see no option but to sit and wait for a decision from ACAS. If they do not agree with that decision, they want to see action stepped up to secure their jobs.

Stepping up must surely mean, not a return to in.

effective one-day strikes, but an all-out strike linking up. with the fight against job losses and closures elsewhere.

Messages of support and donations to: Robert Jones, c/o Finance Committee, Robb Caledon Shipbuilding, Caledon Shipyards, Dundee. Cheques payable to the Finance Committee. "INSULTING" • was how Yorkshire miners' president Arthur Scargill described the National Coal Board's offer of 7 per cent.

This meagre offer was the NCB's answer to the National Union of Mineworkers' claim for a 25% increase in basic pay to give surface workers (the lowest-paid) a basic minimum of £100 per week.

Further discussions between the NUM Executive and the NCB were adjourned until November 11. NUM President, Joe Gormley, shortly to retire to the House of Lords, said he was confident that the offer would be improved.

Scargill was certainly right. The offer is an insult. A face worker would get an increase of just over £6 a week. A surface worker would get a mere £4.25.

Gormley is probably also right. It would be surprising, to say the least, if the NCB did not come back with more.

Whether or not there will be a national miners' strike remains to be seen.

The picture today is more complicated than 1972 or 1974. The recession has hit the mining industry badly and there is as yet little sign of recovery. Sales of coal in the UK fell from 123 million tons in 197980 to 113 in '80-81, and are expected to fall to 111 million tons in '81-82.

Coal stocks on the surface are 42.5 million tons - roughly one third of the annual production - and it costs the NCB £6 per ton per year to keep it on the ground.

The NCB would probably like to cut back production, but it can't - because it does not want to disrupt the momentum of increased production at pits where it has made heavy investments, and because industrial action by miners blocked its attempt to close 23 pits earlier this year. + The Tories' original plan, thrown out of the window by the February strike, was for the industry to be self-financing by 1983-4. It a few months, a new Coal Industry Bill, to replace the one scrapped after February, will be revealed.

It will almost certainly be a mixture. Certain types of disease like emphysema will be classed as industrial diseases and there will no doubt be other sweeteners as well, but there will also be an effort to tighten the financial screws.

In this wage round, the NCB and the government may try to buy the miners off again by offering something over the odds, say 12 to 15%. But that depends entirely on the relation of forces.

The amount of coal on the surface is a great obstacle. There is now nearly twice as much as there was in 1972. Nevertheless, given the support of other sections of the working class, there is no reason why these stocks cannot be tied up fairly quickly - and then the economy is still dependent on coal for about 40 per cent of its energy require* ments.

There is an urgent need for miners to throw their weight in with other sections of the working class. In 1972 and 1974 the whole working class stood behind the miners, and it is time for us to repay the debt.

LIVERPOOL LIBERALS BEGIN TO BACK DOWN Liverpool's Liberal-led City Council has finally - on Wednesday 21st - agreed to begin talks with its 400 striking typists, and to go to a form of arbitration with representatives from the employers and unions nationally.

Everything is still in the melting pot, however, and it is important that the momentum of the strike is kept up.

Messages of support and donations. to: Liverpool Typists strike committee, c/o NALGO Branch Office, Duchy Chambers, 24 Sir Thomas St, Liverpool 1.

Led: AFTER 14 weeks, the strike by 15 women at the Glencroft Knitwear factory in Glasgow, for reinstatement and union recognition, finally seems to be making an impact.

The 45 scabs still working are becoming increasingly irritated by the picketing, especiatly the weekly Tuesday morning pickets, when trade unionists and Labour Party members have been turning up to boost the numbers.

Determined

But the women's fight is still far from being won. In fact, as the dispute continuues, the scabs and Newman (the firm's owner) are clearly becoming increasingly determined not to be beaten.

It would also be wrong to assume that blacking is in operation at the airport because the TGWU says so. Many of the depots at the airports are not unionised.

And when Socialist Organiser supporters from Paistey, . near Glasgow airport, spoke to local T&G members, they had not heard anything about the Glencroft dispute from their union.

Last week the wom en's union, the NUHKW, was finally able to tell them the date (in November) of the industrial tribunal that will discuss their sackings.

Intimidated

The union's lawyers have been extremely active in preparing the cases. But the record shows that even on the rare occasions when an industrial tribunal has judged a sacking to be 'unfair' , the workers are never taken back on. Will the dispute continue after the tribunal? It would be a tragedy if it did not. Having picketed six days a week for 14 weeks, surviving on only strike pay and donations, and facing daily intimidation by the scabs and the police, it would be ridiculous if the women were to regard the tribunal as decisive.

The labour movement must step up its support for the women now so that they have the backing they need to carry on.

Messages/money: Glencroft Knitwear Dispute, c/o NUHKW, 44 Kelvingrove St, Glasgow G3 7RZ.