New crunch on Rail jobs

Scan page 13

BRITISH Rail's announce- ITISH Rail's announcement of its workshop nt of its workshop closures at Shildon and Horwich with a run-down of the Swindon depot, puts the fight for railway jobs on a new level.

Already 'Parker's Plan' aims to slash 39,000 jobs in five years and the NUR's failure to fight up until now has opened the door to the latest plans.

If allowed to go ahead the proposed closures will be devastating. 5,500 jobs will go. Horwich and Shildon already have frightening unemployment rates - if the workshops close they will become Consett style ghost towns.

Undoubtedly the decision is political, and reflects the growing moves towards privatisation and asset stripping which the Tories are demanding from nationalised industries.

Announced the same week was BR's £37 million loss for 1981, with an expected loss of some £160 million for 1982.

Clearly Peter Parker faces a growing crisis (he is talking now of closing up to 3,000 miles of track -about 25% of the total).

The flexible rostering issue is still not resolved and the publication of the Mccarthy report (expected this week) is unlikely to fully back management.

Determined

With the drivers still determined following the success of their strike, the stage looks set for a new confrontation. At many depots guards are refusing to work the new rosters despite the complete sellout of the NUR leadership and the NUR conference in June will see a heated debate and possible rejection of the dirty deal Weighell made with Parker.

Meanwhile on the Bedford-St. Pancras line, a completely refurbished commuter service lies idel as workers refuse to work single-manned trains.

All this illustrates the anger and impatience of most railworkers - especially as this year's pay settlement was due las month and negotiations haven't yet begun!

At the threatened workshops workers responded immediately with mass demonstrations in Shildon and Horwich. The NUR Executive unanimously agreed to oppose the cuts with all-out strike action "if necessary"

We now need strong, co-ordinated pressure from the rank and file to ensure that this decision is acted on. It is after all, already union policy. But Weighell is one of the most experienced blusterers in the business and his long and dishonourable record of sell-outs shows no trust can be placed in him.

His instincts are for selfpreservation, sabotaging workers' struggles (particularly train drivers), and a pathological commitment to witch-hunts and expulsions. His opposition to privatisation plans is also pretty dubious.

Killing

The NUR made a killing recently ... buying up shares in the sale of Amersham International, and Weighell defended the decision, pointing out that we must accept the realities of the mixed economy!

The fact that there growing campaign to him out (already on is kick the agenda for this y agenda for this year's conference) probably has conterence) probably something • to do with his new-found 'militancy'.

The ASLEF strike proved that railworkers are not prepared to accept fewer jobs and worse conditions. The latest closures must be stopped and the only way to guarantee that is to stop the railway.

Railworkers should be getting their branches to demand immediate strike action to halt the closures as well as linking this fight to the continuing campaign against last year's sell-out, especially the NUR's agreement to flexible rostering.

We should also be developing links with steelworkers and miners in an effort to transform the Triple Alliance into a real workers' alliance rather than the present bureaucrats' tea party.

DAVE LUNTS (Pendleton NUR)

Elizabeth Creighton ALF BUDD, President of the National Union of Teachers, seems to be all set to win this year's Richard Nixon Memorial Prize for bureaucratic doubletalk.

Budd's first ruling at NUT conference was that the motion on disarmament at the recent Scarborough NUT conference was out of order. This was successfully challenged, and the motion was eventually carried.

But Budd has now informed NUT members that their conference did not have the right to pass this In a superb piece of reasoning which will no doubt feature in the next series of Whoop Apocalypse, Budd write s in 'The Teacher' that he

Scan page 14

'We can not be n0.83 -Debate-