Black machine operators at the Standard Telephone Compuny in Southpite, London, are still on strike in pursuit of a demand that the management force the skilled machine setters to train a black machine operator as a SIC, which is owned by the pant American fum ITT. b a company where a section of white workers have formed an alliance with the management against their black fellow workers. Half of the 2,000 workers are black, yet only ond is employed as a skilled setter, The black workers, employed as machine operators, have fought a long battle against this racist alliance.
When in 1969, for example, a black operator was elected as a shop steward, most of the white setters left the AUEW and joined the ETU im protest. In 1970, the management wished to train another setter, The operators recommended a black, and the ETU members a while, worker. The management selected the white ETU member, who had only been at the factory for six months. After strikes and go-slows, a black setter was finally appointed in 1971. At this point the setters demanded a training bonus of C1.50 a week, even though they had heen training white setters for years. In late 1972 another black operator, Roderick