WEEKLY The Ford strike, for a special pre This adea was pushed during the period of the social contract and in the run up to the General ElecHowever, when the press shop cane out, resulting in the laying off of all the hody plant workers, bot a word came from the CP stewards No attempt was made to link this with a strugale for their Interim Award. They did not even try to organise a struggle against the layThe management were quick to see that neitber the CP stewards nor the trade union officials wanted to fight now on the press shop clain. The company are therefore trying to use this to turn the laidoff workers against the press shop That is why they have nipped in smartly by offering to negotiate on the Interim Pay Claim, providing the strikers go back to work.
ATTACK ON MILITANTS Mr. Todd, an official of the IGWU, put the company's offer to a mass mecting of press shop workers. He asked the strikers to accept the offer, and artacked the But Arthur Flicker, spokesman for the press shop workers, called on the strikers to reject the company's offer-and they did by an overwhelming majority.
Since that time union officials and other trade union representatives on the Ford National Joint Nepotiating Committee have joined hardship being inflacted on thou sands of fellow Ford workers.
Unfortunately the Halewood en have succumbed to this pressure and the pressure from the Labour Parly, who want things quiet on the industrial front during the election poriod.
COMPANY'S RELIEF
No positive recommendations were made al the end of the Hale wood strike, no doubt to the company's reliel. They realise that after being out so long for nothing the workers will not be so enthu siastic to come out again The Dagenham press shop was to have another meeting on Wednes day 2 October. But the sitution remains the same. Ford's remain adamant that there will be no negoriacions until there is a return to work.
Mrs. Castle's Department of Health and Social Security is doing its bit on the strike-breaking front. They have refused to make any payments to laid-off workers und are treating them as strikers. Orders to adopt this policy have come from bigh up in the Department No doubt Castle is aware of its strike-breaking unplications, and how it is being used to split the work force Steve Harper, a Ford's worker laid off in the dispute, says: The press shop workers must continue their strike. The laid-off workers must start a light now for an Interim Wage Claim, a guaranteed working week and the continuation of thresholds after October. There must also be a campaign to insist that Castle instructs the DHSS to pay both strikers and laid-off workers.?