Next Monday, 2 April, the Phase 2 norm of £1 plus 4% becomes the law. Any union defying it by taking action in support of a claim above the norm can be fined an unlimited amount. There is also the further possibility of jailings for contempt should the defiance continue.
Faced with this prospect, the response of most trade union leaders has been to beat a hasty retreat. All That Vic Feather had to offer at the meeting of the TUC finance and general purposes committee last Friday, 23 March, was that unions are "free to take their case to the Pay Board if they so wish". The civil servants look like being among the first to knock at that door; their actions come to an end with a final half day strike this Friday, the last working day before Phase 2 becomes law. Only one group is certain to defy the law-the hospital workers. The militancy and solidarity of the rank and file has driven the strike forward despite the reluctance of the union leaders. Already St. George's at Hyde Park in London has voted to strike indefinitely from 2 April in open defiance of the law, and other hospitals in London and elsewhere are taking similar action. The strike is also being extended in other ways. with strike committees and sympathetic doctors deciding what are 'emergency' cases, and private health care facilities being closed down. But this in itself is not enough.
IMPORTANCE The ruling class is well aware of the importance of this strike. They know full well that one