BL convenor attacked People's March date

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THA PEOPLE'S March verv "respectable' and support for the March - a

Bus leaders retreat 450 AJEW workers at BL Land P ver, Cardiff, walked oli adst Thurbday, 30th, in protest when management attempted to discipline the plant convenor.

The Cardiff workers are fighting the extension of BL's attack on shop steward organisation - already well advanced at the main sites - to their factory.

AUEW official Ken Cure met the stewards on Monday and unsuccessfully pressed for a return to work. On Tuesday he put the same recommendation to a mass meeting, and it voted to return to work.

The disciplinary action had -been suspended -though management proposals to restrict the convenor's facilities have not been withdrawn, and will be the subject of negotiations involving national union officials.

The Cardiff workers will have to watch Cure carefully and be vigilant.

The struggle is a vital one for union organisation.

For the last 18 months, the convenor, Geoff Stockham, has been doing union work for 20 hours a week on a flexible basis.

Management initially refused to recognise him and have tried to remove his facilities a number of times since then.

On Friday 4th he was presented with a 'code of conduct saying he could only be seen by members by appointment through the head of department.

On Monday 7th, the foreman and head of department went to the stewards' office and instructed Geoff to go to his workplace. He refused. After 30 minutes he was told he was in dispute with the company.

On Thursday 10th management said they were suspending Geoff for five days. After another stewards' meeting, a mass meeting voted overwhelmingly to walk out until all threats of disciplinary action were withdrawn.

Pickets were mounted, but there were no scabs. The EETPU members on site also supported the dispute.

The Cardiff factory has a strong position, since the gearbox produced thére is irreplaceable for the Rover SD1, the Range Rover, the Jaguar, and the Taxi.

THE PEOPLE'S March

for Jobs 1983 will set out from Glasgow on April 23.

The TUC announced plans this Monday. The march will go from Glasgow through Carlisle to arrive in London on June 3, with a festival on June 4 and a rally on June 5.

The TUC, under pressure from the Labour frontbench, initially opposed the march for fear that it would spoil Labour's image in election year. Now it is sure to try to keep the march ABSOLUTELY according to form, the one day national bus stoppage, on February 4 has been called off by TGWU leaders.

The National Joint Industrial Council for municipal buses met again last Friday, 11th. The employers made a revised offer of 42% on the basic plus an extra day's holiday. for workers with over five years" service - a retrograde proposal which would propel workers back to the divisive days of long-service productivity (read slavery) - and sick pay for the first three days.

IGWU Passenger Transport leaders were so impressed by this generosity that they suspended the call for

very 'respectable'

strictly-controlled.

Unemployed and labour movement activists need to move quickly to take the initiative in setting up local People's March committees on a democratic basis, and demanding that the march is controlled by the unemployed themselves, not by the Stalinist-minded union full-timers who dominated the 1981 March.

The West Midlands TUC has even now voted to call on the TUC to withdraw its February 4 while they discussed these proposals.

All is now set for the fifth and final act of this annual farce. The delegates, some of them still unelected, will soon gather in London to be told that 'this is the best we can 'get'.

Unless there is a positive movement from the rank and file to demand that the offer be voted on at mass meetings up and down the country, and to go all out for the full claim, then the curtain will fall on yet another sell-out by our so-called . leadership. Busworkers will continye to work long hours. under immense pressure, in highly polluted inner-city areas, Phil Hardy

support for the March - a

movem which underlines the need for independent rank-and-file organisation in that area.

The TUC will also probably try to keep the march small. We can best combat this by not waiting for the TUC to send out circulars, and instead getting union branches to sponsor marchers now and to write to the TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street London WC1.