which is perhaps why this from the militant occupation against For three weeks, 638 members of the Transport and General Workers Union at Commonwealth Smelting Ltd in Avonmouth, Bristol, have been striking against redundancies and wage cuts. Management are trying to axe 114 jobs and transfer work for the duration of the furnace clean out - a wage cut of £16.20 a week for The T&G's response at a mass meeting was to demand no redundancies and no loss of wages through the dropping of An eight hour sit-in in defence of a worker threatened with victimisation after the T&G's withdrawal of flexibility was also organised. Later in the week the management at CSL - a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Zinc - dropped procedure and issued redundancy notices day, A round the clock sit-in began, and for a whole weekend management were off site while the T&GWU kept this 'enormously complex process ucking over Dy producing unsaleable metal!
TOKEN SUPPORT But worried by the token support to come likely to be forthcoming both from the T&G bureaucracy and the TUC, the stewards decided against full occupation, the locking of management off site and raising the demand for the Labour Government to nationalise CSL: Yet even if a prolonged strike wins victory, the workers at CSL will still be faced with a manage ment that demands rationalisation' to keep the firm viable in the capitalist marAs it is, AUEW, EEPTU and ASTMS members are all crossine the round-the clock picket lines, although some traffic has been stopped at source, and work is still continuing at another RTZ subsidiary on the same ste WUS TO HORS scabbing on the strike should raise the dispute in their branch and send resolu tions of support to the striking workers.
DELEGATION
Appeal sheets have been produced, a CSL speaker addressed a recent Bristol Trades Council meeting, and a delegation from the smelter will be on the 26 November demonstration. Ron Thomas, a local Tribune MP, has publicly supported the strike; and the local Claimants Union organised a march of 200 strikers and their families on the DHSS last FriThe whole of the chericals industry on Severnside is watching closely the dispute at CSL. Bristol Chemicals and Fisons are threatened with short-term closure by the dispute. What happens at CSL will largery derermme wnewer management o workers win out in the area for some time convenors in the occupied rersonna тастогу un ately telescoped une comments or bro. alimore or Ar derson s and bro. Jonn wnyte or britis cables archie the fight for support for Personne should be limited t through the building of a "fighting committee of shop