Sheffield THE CURRENT engineering dispute has made the issue of trade union democracy one of the most debated questions in the industry: capitalist press and the right wing in the union have not been slow to point out that the membership have not voted. for the strike. 'No vote strike' has been the rallying call of the "return to work' brigade.
We need not concern ourselves too much with the hypocrisy of the press, whose concern for union democracy only seems to emerge when there is a strike on. (Can anyone press outrage when the policy of the AUEW delegation to last year's Labour Party conference and refused to cast a vote for the automatic re-selection of MPs?) Membership But the fact is that the calling of a national strike without any say in the matter by the membership justifiably against many rank and file members of the union. This is particularly a problem the Amalgamated Engineering Workers, where there is. something of a tradition of — at least at a formal •collary level.
All full-time officers are elected by the membership for limited periods of time, and the policy-making National Committee consists mainly of rank and file members whose decisions are at least theoretically binding on the Executive Council In the current series of strikes the membership have denied a vote, but their involvement in general in the struggle has been very passive. All the decisions concerning the claim and industrial action taken by full-time officials. All rank and file do is withdraw their labour on the dates announced.
Embrace It is not sufficient to denounce as • reactionary everyone plains about the lack of a vote, or simply to quote the rule book as many Communist Party militants seem to be doing. Our answer to the right wing must embrace the democracy general whether there's a vote on the two-day strike.
One of the factors that continues THEUSE of the lock-out is by no means a new tactic of the engineering employers. In 1922 the Engineering Employers Federation organised a national lock-out which developed into a major of strength Amalgamated Engineering Union [AEUJ. The half-hearted response of the union leadership then led to a major defeat for the union. It also paved the way for an employers' offensive over productivity redundancy.
War had allowed the unions to offensive. In 1920 the engineers had won a 15 shilling increase in agreement which gave the unions considerable control over overtime working.
ever, hit the industry hard. From December 1920 to July 1921 the number of unemployed members of the AEU rose from 114,684: At the same time ocialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 4 The no ACCLOC Scanlon ignored TERRY DUFFY goes officials. grain question of Union of about the conscious about democracy then. let question of the 35-hour week.
Settlement only been to 39 hours as Duffy are the and down the country.
I ne COLL meetings rejection. question not just But this vote — no strike' brigade. to undermine support is the continua. watering down of the claim by the What about rank and file control over that? What about the crease.
dispensations companies that have 'settled'? What alternative stoppages, such as an all-out strike?
The demand for a vote needs to be put in the context of the demand for rank and file control over all aspects of the struggle. For those who are so WILl week. the us begin with the tried SI COL Let us put it to the membership -should we be fighting for a 35-hour week now or should we water it down the has done?
Let all views be canvassed and the membership vote in mass meetings up Rolls Rovce workers have called for all-out action. This call was repeated by our stewards quarterly. If the capitalist press would like the let those in favour of ending the action and those who want all-out action speak to mass throughout the country.
And before there is any settlement let the membership vote on acceptance or Perhaps this is not the sort of democracy Fleet Street have in mind.
campaign for if we are to beat the 'no Last week, workers al the smaller the two Armstrong plants decided to end the action after hearing that the main plant was not taking part in the strike. Adams Hydraulies foundry workers have accepted management's offer of an £80 minimum for skilled workers without any concession on Amongst the weaknesses the action mentioned to me by strikers have been. the crossing of picket lines by members the union's white-collar section, TASS, the lack of strike pay [making all-out action a difficult step], and the inadequate involvement of apprentices.
Another important influence on the strikers has been the failure of weeks •of action by German steelworkers to 35-hour week.
WY:|1 Clearly Europe-wide fight for 35 hours with no loss in pay is needed.
Vauxhall By Rob Stoddart FOR THE week workers from Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant in Merseyside have been sending flying pickets far away as Essex to win their six-week-old strike Their General Motors is over a claim for a 25 per cent increase pay indexlinked against inflation, an end to the company's new penalty clauses, and shorter working. week of 37½ hours as a first step to Despite the acceptance of the company's 13 pe cent offer by the othe Vauxhall at Dunstable and Luton, the Ellesmere Port workers remain militant and determined to win.
The pickets are aimed at halting the import of cars and parts from the continent. The main picket OI nearly Harwich, although the company has tried to use including Duc.
Ipswich, Felixstowe, and Sheerness in Kent.
Thanks to the solidarity shown by dockworkers at these ports only token pickets have proved necesT&GwU convenors have . The AUEW and been checking other ports to make sure they stay one jump ahead.
Saturday the Special Supplementary Units (local SPG) appear ed on the picket line for the first time, and for the first time there was trouble The police waded into the pickets as they checked a wagon which was suppos edly empty, arresting for obstruction and charg ing one with assault Despite these arrests the strikers remain un daunted, in part because of the support and solidarity they have re ceived so far.
to all the engineering unions, not just the AEU Within a month the rest capitulated to the employers, leaving the AEU on its own again apart from two smaller craft unions. union funds having dropped from £3,250,000 in 1920 to virtually nothing, the membership voted by two to one to go back to work.
The rest of the labour movement had left AEU to break out of this isolation. None of the AEU members in firms were called out solidarity, and the leadership refused to allow the unemployed to be involved in the struggle even though they might have been used by Two years after its formation the union had suffered a major defeat, resulting in 333,123 and speed-up, victimisation and wage cuts in the factories. The employers' organisation, on the other hand, was stronger and more united than