Fightback at Cowley USDAW: throw out bosses

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THROUGHOUT its plants Shop. The -company has Ambassadors.

BL management has • con- been trying to increase line They returned to work this, the Pai tinued its speed-up offen- speed from 42 to 44 per on the basis of the company • lately stopp sive. In the Body Plant at hour with no increase in agreeing to run the tracks were stopper is narrowly lost, but unilateral nuclear disarmament is now NUT policy strik ca can defr Civi Servi As the arbitration court on civil service SISTER SHO HAMILTON WTITUENCY Cowley, the resistance has been particularly strong.

The latest group of workers to take a stand have been those In the Paint STOP Shop. The company has been trying , to increase fine speed from 42 to 44 per hour with no increase" in Two weeks ago they walked out for two days and nights stopping all production of Acclaims, Rovers and TUC JuTi Flack Ambassadors.

They returned to work on the basis of the company agreeing to run the tracks at the old line speed of 42.

At that time the company said they would put the line speed up again this Monday. When they did THE Fison Holmes Chapel Branch have a motion on the agenda of the USDAW Annual Conference at Eastbourne calling for "all employers and their representatives to excluded from this and all subsequent conferences"

For the bosses to organise junkets to enable delegates and full time officials to stick their snouts in the troughs of class collaboration has long been the practice at USDAW conferences.

And there is even wrecking amendment from Cardiff Central that hopes to ensure that bosses continue to be allowed visitor status at a time when trade union rights are suffering an unprecedented onslaught via the Tebbit Bill.

The movers from Holmes Chapel however have their own experience to draw on when their motion comes up for debate.

Fisons have a subsidiary in India called Rallis. When the workforce at Rallis occupied their factory against short-term sub-contract labour paying 6 rupees a day (36p) Rallis (in Laurence Scott style) called the police to evict them.

Ten were killed and 150 wounded.

When the Joint Shop Stewards Committee at Fisons Holmes Chapel heard of this murder of Indian workers they wrote to management protesting about the planned visit to heir plant by the Presideni of Rallis India.

Management responded to the letter by asking the stewards to take down their anti-Tebbit leaflets from union noticeboards, and some were taken down after the stewards refused to comply.

On the day of the visit (25 March), the company brought members of police onto the site. They were in plain clothes and did not sign the visitors' log.

The stewards not unnaturally suspect they were from the Special Branch.

The motion from Holmes Central, if debated, will pose this, the Paint Shop immedlately stopped again. They were stopped for two hours and again the company and atain reduced the speed to 42 per hour. The company are threatening to try again this Wednesday. the question 'Is USDAW a bosses' sweetheart union or a union equipped to defend its members?

On the question of the Labour Party, the knives are out in motion from Birmingham Dry Goods Branch, which calls for the expulsion of Militant from the Labour Party and for USDAW to make such a proposal at the Labour Party conference.

This rearguard action by the 'Bosses' Tendency' in USDAW is another measure of the importance of this conference for the rank and file of USDAW.

If this motion is passed the bosses will be laughing all the way to the bank -police in the factories, witch-hunts in the Labour Party and trade unions.

My own branch has submitted two proposals linking the struggle for democracy in the Labour Party and the struggle for women's rights and the cuts. Both motions are based on CLPD model resolutions. The first calls for:

a) the Labour Party Women's Conference to be allowed five propositions to the Party Conference as of right.

b) for representatives from the women's conference to be ex officio delegates at Labour Party conference and have the right to move motions.

c) mandatory inclusion of at least one woman on all parliamentary short lists, provided that a woman member has sought nomination.

d) election of the women's section of the NRC to be carried out by the women's conference.

The USDAW Broad Left is organising a number of meetings during the conference, the main one being addressed by Tony Benn and Chris Pond of the Low Pay Unit.

JOHN DOUGLAS Sec. Manchester CWS Packing Branch.

Sec. Manchester Divisional USDAW Broad Left (in a personal capacity)