AS WE went to press the apparent determination of thi eadership of the Labour Party and trade unions to def the wishes of their rank-and-file on pay policy took on more and more sinister tones.
MONDAY: the union leaderships of the public employees, following talks with the employers in London, declared themselves satisfied that the unions had received no offer. Ron Keating, Assistant general secretary of the National Union of Public Employees, explained to an angry lobby of his members that any such offer would be an embarrassment while talks on the pay policy between the TUCand Labour Government continued.
TUESDAY: Ron Todd, chief union negotiator at Ford, told a shop stewards meeting that he was not rejecting the company's offer of 12½ percent. Heand other union leaders implied that the £20 claim and the demand forashorter working week were as good as dead.
WEDNESDAY: Callaghan's Queen's Speech made clear the determination of the Labour government to ignore the Labour Party conference's 1. opposition to all forms of pay policy.
What all these attitudes have in common can be summed up in one word. Defiance. Defiance of the wishes of party and union conferences and the rank-and-file.
Just as the TUCleaders have no mandate to engage in their secret talks with the Labour Government, just as the local government union leaders have no mandate to wait until the outcome of these talks, so too Ron Todd has no mandate to barter away the full Ford's claim.
But the striking Ford workers now seem likely to be joined by otherstrikers. If the public employees made it a trio it woud beresistancesostrong that the 5 per cent policy would really be a thing of the past.
And if Callaghan, Len Murray, Ron Keating, and Ron Todd don't likeit, let them be pushed aside for others who do.
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street, 01-359 8180/9. Distribution/ Advertising 01-359 8371. London N1. Editorial
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Don't let him get away with it.