Bradford ASTMS
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-01-28Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 15 →
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refused, and are attempting to do The ASTMS work normally done by 24 members of ASTMS at Rank Wharfdale, Bradford, are in their third week of strike action.
The dispute follows the management substituting for the annual review an arbitrary increase of 3½% plus £1. ASTMS members, in response to this, banned overtime, worked to rule, and adopted a no-flexibility rule, i.e. not covering duties done by colleagues made recently redundant.
Management then instructed the branch secretary, Harry Waring, to do a job he had not previously done, thus breaking the no-flexibility rule. Harry was suspended. members stopped work.
Harry Waring told Socialist Organiser, "The management have deliberately driven us into this dispute. We have no other option but to strike, or the union would have been effectively smashed'.
This is the first official dispute in 50 years at the factory, and the workforce of about 300 has been split. Members of STAP and EETPU have crossea: the picket lines and are working alongside management who immediately ASTMS members.
Harry Waring said, We can't understand these people. This strike has really sorted out where they stand. How are we going to he able to work with them?' Despite this, morale is good among the strikers, who say they are determined to win back the right to negotiate their pay and conditions.
Messages/money: Harry Waring, 17 Greenacre Drive, Shelf, near Halifax.
MATTHEW KIRKPATRICK