Pickets can win this fight

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How long has Sacomando [the factory's owner] been running this place?

For about 2½ years. He used to run a factory in Corbett Street. He told us he moved out of that one because he needed bigger premises. But at one of the Labour Party branches we were speaking at last week, the local councillor told us that in fact his old factory got shut down for breaching health regulations.

By all accounts this place isn't much better. Is it true that green mould used to grow on the walls in here?

Yes. We were meant to clean it off, but you never had time to clean it all, and it would grow again. The bird droppings were really bad as well. At night it was like an aviary in there. There were more sparrows in there than out here.

Has the Environmental been down since the began?

Yes, but the inspector didn't let us know anything. He just mumbled something about him having three weeks to clean the place up.

Supposing Environmental Health shut this place down as well. Would you regard that as a victory, even though you'd be out of a job?

Sacomando has to accept us back and accept the union. Otherwise we'll shut him down, Environmental Health or not. Now it's between him and us. We'll only go back if we win, so if he doesn't accept the union THE STRIKE for union recognition, reinstatement of the nine sacked workers, and better working conditions at the Carousel wafer factory in the East End of Glasgow is now nearly a month old.

Stan Crooke talked to Carol Rodger, Andrew Patton, Christine Miller and Marie Mcintyre.

it'Il be a victory if he gets shut down.

What impact has the picketing had?

Quite good. Enbisco, one of the biggest customers has stopped collecting, and the pig bins aren't collected either. The mail has been stopped so he has to go and collect it himself.

But the scabs are still going in, though some of the people turning up for an interview have gone away again. And his own drivers are still making deli veries, though not as many as usual.

What's been the attitude of police to the picketing?

They came down this morning and 'said that if Sacomando phoned them one more time to complain about us, then they'd come down on us like a ton of bricks.

We've been stopped from using the megaphone, and we can't call the scabs 'scabs' or 'blacklegs' anymore. All we're supposed to'do is ask them not to cross the picket line.

How about the reaction of scabs themselves?

They've generally ignored us. One or two stop to chat to us, but in the end they still go in. They're just a bunch of pains in the arse.

How much support are you getting now from trade unions, the Labour Party and so on?

We're getting better support all the time. We've had money coming in from different union and Labour Party branches.

We've had people down on the picket line from hospitals, the mines, the shipyards, the District Council and other places. And we've been asked to speak at a lot of meetings as well.

Have you had any contact with Sacomando since the strike began?

No, but David Marshall, the local MP, was in seeing | him yesterday. Sacomando told him that we were just a few stupid kids, that everyone else in the factory was happy, and you could pick up £90 a week in there. But there's no way that's possible. Two TGWU full-timers were in today, but he never said anything us all back or rer What support-are you looking for?

We want mass pickets, we want as many people down here as possible, and also financial donations. That way • he'll change his mind as quickly as possible.

Becau most of Carousel's suppliers and customers are non-union firms, • effective picketing is of crucial importance to winning the dispute. The recent TGWU national conference committed the union to defiance of Tebbit's anti-picketing laws. Let's do it!

Apart from urging their members to support the picketing anyway, local TGWU branches should be sending motions to the Glasgow District Committee and Glasgow Trades Council demanding that they call days of action for mass picketing. ; about taking ognising the

Defend

THE WORKERS at Sandhar and Kang wholesale warehouse in Birmingham are now entering their seventh week on strike.

Basically, the dispute is in defence of trade union organisation = won after a month-long strike last June. Six weeks ago, S&K sold off. the dispatch departmemn, which also meant the transfer of the T&G section steward and another unior member.

An added twist is that the company that has bought the department - Euro Packing -is itself owned by the husband of S&K's accountant.

The 23 Asian strikers are determined to stay out until their two workmates are reinstated as S&K employees.:

Messages and donations to: S&K strike fund, TGWU, Broad St, Birmingham B15.