Standard Telephone Cables in London last week, a mass meeting decided-on the recommendation of the joint shop stewards committee to adopt the tactic of sectional lightning strikes. The snag was that the power to call any shop out lies in the hands of the convenors.
The workforce as a whole has no say in the particular form of action to be taken. This means that the convenors can stop action whenever they want. This is what happened for a period.
Immediately after the decision on Tuesday, the whole factory went out for the rest of the day. On Wednesday and Thursday, the convenors nepotiated for hours on end with the management and called no action whatsoever. For twelve hours the convenors grovelled before management asking them for a formula to Jet them off the hook. The management would not give way. Far from softening up the management, the lack of action gave them the confidence to dig their heels in.
REDISTRIBUTION
At the end of the twelve hours the management simply came forward with a redistribution of the offer they had already made, All it did was take some from the semiakilled and the women workers and give more to the skilled.
Managements tactics are clear. They intend to sit it out and let the divisions amongst the workforce bring the struggle to a balt. It is particularly easy for the skilled to scab on the sectional strikes.
However, lightning strikes were called on Friday and they were 100 per cent solid, This has worried the management and they keep on throwing a few more crumbs in in an altempt to dissipate the struggle. So far these crumbs have come to 75p. for the men and 92 per cent of 75p. (69 p.) For the women.
There are two weak links in the strugpie, in addition to tne rigbrwing leadership. The first is the lack niinvolemant ofthe gnmen The women are striking with the men, but they have not taken any lead, thus making it easy for the right-wing to sell out the equal pay demand.
NO HOPE This is because of the whole sick reactionary history of the factory, where some of the unions have played an actively racist role. In this situation, the women -many of whom are black-have seen no hope, and even now when some initiative has been taken, they still haven't the confidence to take the control out of the hands of the shop stewards committee.
The second weakness is the lack of democracy in the strugele. Although there have been two mass meetings in the course of the struggle, they have been strictly controlled by the convenors who have entirely determined what should and what should not be decided upon at the meetings BASIC RATE The mass of workers have had no say on the question of the amount of the basic rate, no strike committee has been elected, and the only tactics which they have been allowed to vote on have been laid down by the shop stewards committee. in order to unify the struggle and allow the women the opportunity to have a say in what is going on, it is essential that the contTol of the strike is put into the hands of the workforce as a whole.
Messages of support to Dave Landau, Secretary of the Joint Shop Stewards Committee, (STC), 31 Hornsey Rise Gardens, London N19.