Matthews was left pondering his chances of implementing the cuts without a fight and hoping for better things the next day in Glasgow.
Good grounds for such hopes certainly existed. The Maryhill and Bridgeton offices were clearly selected on their past record as the most likely areas of least resistance. Maryhill, which had had no strikes for over three years, the managers were quite happy to inform union representatives of the visit during a Whitley Council meeting, immediately after announcing that the present cuts would mean a reduction of six in present office staff!
However, Maryhill CPSA members had voted on Monday afternoon to walk out in protest against the cuts, and that decision was backed up magnificently when Matthews arrived on Wednesday morning. More than 80 clerks walked out and set up a picket, leaving their disconsolate manager to wander with his guests through a shuttered and neardeserted building.
Although SCPS members had enalso include the planning of hardline tactics to curb further militant action against the cuts. For the camAt paign of walk-outs did not merely result in a propaganda victory for civil service trade unionists fighting the cuts. It also meant, if the example of Maryhill is typical, a big boost to the forces and commitment behind that struggle. At Maryhill many new union members were signed up on the picket line!
The Executive of the DHSS Section of the CPSA has now called for all-out action against the proposed reduction in the 1977 Local Office Complement on the following basis: * Total Ban on Overtime * No Easements * Ban on Work-Sharing to cover Staff Reductions * No Cooperation with Experiments *No Cooperation with Audits and Surveys
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It would be naive in the extreme to imagine that these talks did not