[THE CRUNCH decisions on NHS pay loom ever…]

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THE CRUNCH decisions on NHS pay loom ever closer. And the leaders: of the health unions are manoeuvring like mad, seeking to retain credibility in the eyes of their members while doing their best to ensure that the latest offer wurse than the previous one! - is accepted.

Continuing their policy of leaving the membership as much in the dark as possible, Albert Spanswick and the CoHSE National Executive will not decide a recommendation until the eve of the special delegate conference on December 14.

COHSE is under increased pressure to give formal support to the call for allvut strike action with only accident and emergency cover, following the overwhelming vote by the NUPE executive to reject the latest offer and recommend members to back the strike call in branch meetings.

But to leave the whole in limbo matter until the special conference itself leaves matters in limbo for three weeks and might open up still further scope for delay in the seemingly interminable seven month. old dispute - if it were decided then to refer a strike decision back to CoHSE branches.

Spanswick's right wing leadership has emerged as the most overt opponents of the policy of all-out strike action, which they viciously attacked at the union's regular conterence in june.

But their 'alternative' strategy of piecemeal protest and pressure - which has allowed the dispute to drag on for so long - has been aided and abetted at every step by other health union leaderships, who share Spanswick's distaste for confrontation with the government and contempt or their membership.

NUPE leaders in particular, though mandated as early as May to push for an all out strike in the NHS, have only in the last six weeks begun to fight for such a policy.

Even now their commitment is far from total. Together with the NEC recommendation for an -allout strike goes a deliberately confusing warning from NHS officer Bob Jones - warning that rejection of the offer could lose NUPE members. any chance of an increase for 1982-3!

If this were true, then why, NUPE members such a danger in mind Misputello diat paintale on for the best part of 12 months?

In reality it must be seen as a further attempt by union leaders to confuse and divide their memberships and end a dispute which they have never been seriously prepared to fight.

The answer must be a firm rejection of the offer .- wherever possible from joint mass meetings of all health unions - and a solid vote for all out strike action in the New Year. the plant.

That meant breaking up the TGWU branch, introducing secret ballot voting and installing a right wing convenor.

in the middle of 1976. when the leit had regained much of its influence but the right wing was still in power four stewards were victimised (their credentials were withdrawn). There was a two week strike which was eventually broken. Buckle openly supported management.

That strike was used to split up the branch yet again, since it was by then controlled by the left.

Charges

At the ena or 19// wen A A 11 :. 1-8 1A77 --Lare. the left won back the leadership of the plant the newly elected leadership was faced with charges arising from a District Committee meeting.

was subjected. to a kangaroo court organised by Buckle and recommended for expulsion, and Fryer and others were recommended to be banned from all offices for life. In the end they were unable to carry this out.

What do you think are the facenne for militante etill in the plant and in BL as a whole? What should they do next?

We must understand what is happening to the trade union movement at board. Conditions now are worse than the ones I can remember in the early 1960s.

But it has to be rebuilt on the basis of some political strategy for struggle under conditions of severe economic crisis, mass unemployment and answers to the viability issue.

It has to be built on a programme starting from the independent interests of the working class, and breaking from those like the present trade union leaders who start from the problems of BL.

*That outlook is the one which has led them to attack us constantly since 1974, because we represented such a programme.

Would you suggest any campaign beyond the plant itself to expose the role of Buckle and the TGWU?

Yes. Like Derek Robinson's sacking, this will be a milestone for BL. Like with his victimisation, the real job was done by the union.

If the struggle for trade union democracy is to be tackled seriously, it is essential that trade union activists, particuarly in the TGWU, know what has happened. • Finally, these issues, particularly the role of David Buckle, should be taken up inside the TGWU. I certainly intend taking it up at my next branch meeting.

----- pull-quotes -----

might ask, didn't NUPE's 'master strategists' bear