Bosses' backlash against upturn
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The upturn in industrial struggle which has emerged over the past few months — particularly in defence of the NHS, in the car industry, and with the ferry crews — has produced a backlash from both the employers and the courts in an effort to stem its further development.
Steve Forey, Assistant Secretary of the ASLEF branch at Kings Cross, and four shop stewards in Manchester have been sacked for calling for support for the NHS day of action on March 14th.
A ballot on strike action in Steve Forey's defence was lost by 150 votes to 124 (see page 5 for full story).
The decisive factor in this vote was the role of the courts where the case marked a major development in the use of the law.
The injunction obtained by BR was not aimed at the union — as in previous such cases — but at the individual workers, who were told they could be held responsible for loss of trade by BR. The injunction was also open ended and will remain permanently in force.
As well as these legal moves management threatened to sack everyone who took action on March 14th. With this kind of pressure even a strong campaign from the branch was unable to obtain a strike vote.
At Dover, as well, there has been unprecedented use of the courts against the NUS, whose executive decided to ballot for national strike action after pressure from the crews at Dover — who have been on strike for nine weeks.
The union had already taken a heavy blow two months ago when it called a national strike in support of the striking Isle of Man crews. The courts declared the strike secondary action and ordered a return to work.
McCluskie first said that he was prepared to defy the law and go to prison — then called off the strike and complied with the court.
The new strike call and ballot was not a decision to defy the law, but was based on a new legal argument which McCluskie hoped would avoid an injunction. He argued that the matter of staffing levels was a matter for the whole industry — which is obviously the case — and therefore would not be secondary action.
This was laughed out of the High Court by the judge who ridiculed it as "an ingenuous way to get round the law."
On the basis of this, the Court then ordered the withdrawal of the national strike ballot which was by then in progress since, it said, the ballot itself was now illegal!
It was now illegal for people to express their opinion on strike action even if the decision of the ballot was never carried out. To enforce this incredible new departure a suspended sequestration order was issued against the NUS, to be invoked if the ballot went ahead.
By the time the sequestration order was issued, however, the voting was completed. The court then ruled that it was now illegal to count the votes, although they had been cast! McCluskie called off the ballot and had the papers locked in the vaults of the union's bankers — where they will never be counted.
These increasingly outrageous interpretations of the law are part of a pattern which the Tory government have developed since the first legislation was introduced in 1982. At first they only enforced the laws very partially. Then they were used against the NGA and against the NUM during the miners' strike.
Since Wapping, and the collapse of any resistance to them by the TUC, they have become the order of the day, dominating the industrial situation. They are now being interpreted in their full force and new interpretations being invented go beyond that.
The new moves the government has made at GCHQ are no less extreme. Mike Grindley, one of the main organisers of those trade unionists still resisting the ban on trade unions at GCHQ — the government intelligence gathering centre in Cheltenham — is beng ruthlessly persecuted by management.
Mandarin
Grindley has worked there for 26 years as a Mandarin Chinese language expert. He has now been accused of making public classified information and suspended on full pay. All the things he is alleged to have disclosed were already in the public domain anyway!
His positive vetting clearance has been suspended and he has been ordered to keep management informed of his movements in his spare time — including any nights he may spend away from home!
All this is taking place with no response from the top of the trade union movement, where most of the leaderships are still moving to the right, despite the emergence of militancy at the base of the movement. These are major moves which substantially alter the conditions faced by the unions and there is not as much as a comment from the TUC.
Offensive
Another aspect of this offensive is the moves by Ford management. They have managed to overturn completely the policy of the TUC on single union deals with their manoeuvres around their proposed new plant in Dundee. This massively strengthens the position not only of the new realists but of business unionism in the shape of Hammond and Jordan who champion single union deals.
Under these conditions the left have a responsibility to give full support to the sections of rank and file workers who are challenging these developments.
Steve Forey must be given full and active support. His sacking was a blow against solidarity action with NHS workers, but also a blow against rail workers as well. A defence campaign has been set up and should be given full support. It has the support of rail union branches and the Campaign Group of MPs.
The 2,300 seafarers at Dover are now sacked. It is a direct attack on a major organised section of workers on the scale of the attack on the print unions at Wapping. If they are defeated it will mark the virtual end of trade unionism in the shipping industry and a massive deterioration of working conditions in the industry.
The movement must respond to this. There were support groups organised for the printers and there must be support groups organised for the ferry crews! Money and food needs to be collected and a network organised which can respond to their initiatives and give them support.