Lord Stokes has said that if he were forced to pay threshold agreements to the BLMC workforce, the company would go bust. and to vote on it. Support for the Charter was overwhelming: 175 for and 12 against. Nurse Jean Murray Lord Stokes powers of prediction Increase nurses decided to discuss the Charter Since the strike both NUPE and badly hit by inflation. the situation and they have met with to prepare for a 3 day strike, but thes involved in the struggle lo defend and improve the National Health Service. are about to be tested. Four thousand workers at British Leyland's two plants in Llanelli voted to strike from 19 August if the company refuses payment of a cost of living The Lianell workers have been stretched to the limit while the local management have been carrying out a 'clean up' operation. This sophistic. ated' rag and bone collection is designed to save money on old raw materials around the plant.
The management do not seem prepated to give an inch. An inch in Lanelli amounts to several yards te a possible 140 million over a massive ailing BLMC Combine. Latelli workers are het ween LIO and El2 behind the national average rates in some cases, and have been SURVIVAL backing As one worker told the Red Weekly, 'this buttle is one for survival. In March, the date of the annual wage negotiations, there was an unwritten agreement that if inflation bit too hard, the workers would be back for more. John Weakley, the AUEW Convenor and Joint Stewards Committee Chairman, points out that *a threshold rise will only defend our wage packet, not increase it. Hur with inflation as it is we obvinusly want thresholds buckdated to May when the negotiations started?
Of the 2,600 workers in the Radiator Plant, two thousand are women They have been particularly hard hit by the recent adoplion of a Measured Day Work agreement in the plant. Recently women workers around the country have shown little reverence for their toadying trade union leader ship. Many of them cannot see much that's 'social' about the Social Contract.
Nurses, the Asian women in the recent Imperial Typewriters dispute and NALGO women have all played a leading role in the recent fight against any wage restraint. Things could shape up in a similar way in Lanclli. Indeed they need to!
BACKING
Part and parcel of their fight. along with the other workers, is for official - preferably sometime this year! Llanell workers have defended their union to the hilt. They came out on May Day and supported other National Executive calls. It would be nice if the AUEW Exceutive would be as speedy in defence of its rank and file. As yet there have been no moves to get a nationally co-ordinat ed fight.
If Lord Scokes is right, then more than Llanell and the threshold is up for discussion. We wait to hear from the dynamic Mr Beon: pay up or we will take you over."