manoeuvres and union capitulation.
The dispute which affects all Rover plants, is over the January 1975 pay claim for £11.80 to restore the spending-power of Rover wages to their 1972 level. The management reply was to offer 20p - a clear sign that they were spoiling for a showdown with the unions.
The first combine stewards' meeting on 5 June was divided on what action to take. A large minority was for all-out strike action, but a majority voted for a guerrilla strike strategy.
But as the Birmingham IMG's Solihull factory bulletin The Organiser pointed out, with the management prepared for strike action, a strategy of guerrilla strikes would be a recipe for defeat. What was needed was all-out strike action, combined with ocOn the picket line at Rover during last week's 3-day strike As we go to press, the first major strike struggle in British Leyland since the publication of the Ryder Report seems well on the road to being strangled by a combination of management cupations to seize the plants and flying pickets to stop movement of stocks of completed vehicles.
On 13 June the combine stewards called for a 3-day strike from Monday 16 June, to be followed by all-out strike action from 23 June if no satisfactory offer was forthcoming from management.
But it was clear that this compromise position was seen by many of the Negotiating Committee as a way of staving off all-out strike action.
By the second day of the 3-day strike the management rewarded their indecision. They called for an extended plant conference — negotiations with trade union officials present - the last stage of proCCUUIC.
agement offered a mere 10p extra!
tion for a further five days (as laid down in the procedure with regard to strike notice after an extended La decisive defeat on a workforce hands.
i.e. full scale workforce redundant, is a warning to every BLMC worker on the real cuts and redundancies all round!
But at the negotiations, the manWhat they wanted was to draw in the national officials and delay strike acplant conference). They hope to inflict which has so far successfully resisted their massive redundancy plans. Any delay in strike action plays into their But whatever happens the company's insulting offer, together with their plans to make up to 10% of the meaning of the Ryder Report: wage of the struggle.
ENQUIRY INTO WOMEN AT WORK In December of this year the 1970 Equal Pay Act comes into force, meaning that al women workers will supposedly receive the same pay as men for the same job. However, many employers have used the last five years 'wisely'. Re-grading schemes have been introduced whereby women are graded out or similar joos to men- training facilities for women are still totally inadequate, preventing even formal equality: in Birmingham for example, the AUEW has just enrolled two women tool-room apprenThe extent to which the employers have got round the Act has also been sharply revealed by a census carried out amongst its members in Birmingham by the AUEWTASS. It revealed that while men and women on identica/ jobs were receiving the same or nearly the same money, the differential in similar grades was as much as £10 £13 a week. TASS found that women supervisors, although doing broadly the same work as male supervisors, received on average around £10 less throughout the Birm ingham area. Diferences in job description, however marginal, have allowed the employers to run rings round the Act.
This has led Birmingham Trades Council to set up a special sub-committee to in vestigate, via the local trade union movement, the implementation of the Act. Nor is the Trades Council limiting its investigation to so-called 'trade union issues'. In seconding the successful resolution, Linda Simon (National Society of Metal. Mechanics), pointed out that the lack of nursery facilities is a major obstacle in women s struggle to acnieve equality. so the rades council is looking into the avarlabuit of nursery facilities as part of its investigation.
The results of the enquiry are to be published later on in the year. For information on the enquirv, facts and figures and so on, write to D. Perris, Secretary Birmingham Trades Council, 181 Ruskin Buildings, Corporation Street, Birmingham COMPUTER STAFF OCCUPY For three weeks technicians and computer operators at Birmingham University have been occupying computer facilities in pursuit of a claim for the restructuring of pay scales and jod grades. ror nearty tnree years university computer start nationally have been attempting to win an increase which would bring them into line with the wages received by computer staff in other sectors, and in line with pay received by other university technical staff. Last week the operators' union, the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, called an all-out national strike in suppor This action comes at a time when the university authorities are taking a hard line towards campus trade unions as well as students, with the cash crisis intensifying as a result of the education cuts and the effects of inflation. The ocupation at Birmingnam is the kind ot action needed to win the dispute and widen tne basis от support for future struggles. Beating the university authorities on the computer operators dis pute will be a victory for campus technicians and workers as a whole.