Phase 3 will be discussed in Rotherham on 13 October, at a conference organised by the Action Committee set up carlier this year by the Rotherham Trades Council. The speakers will Include Lawrence Daly, Arthur Scargill (NUM), Joan Maynard (Labour Party NEC). and George Cuborn (AUEW District Secretary), unionists, limiting itself to the organisation With delegations attending from trades councils, trade union branches, and shop stewards committees in the Sheffield and Rotherham area, it will be a large conference.
Leading figures in the local Communist Party. have attempted to take the organisation of the conference out of the hands of the Action Committee, and are trying to prevent resolutions from being discussed on the floor of the conference. There is a real danger that the Jamboree of Tory-bashing speeches from the platform. Due to domination by the right-wing Trades Council Executive, aided by the CP. a similar conference held in April failed to set up any permanent body which could coordinate the strugeles of rank-and-file trade of a one-off - if sizeable - stoppage and demonstration in Rotherham on May Day The conference on 13 October could establish a meaningful Action Committee, able to res pond quickly and vigorously to local and national struggles, but the Communist Party's ties with the official leadership of the Trade Unions makes them shy away from such a practical extension of working class unity. Recent events bave shown the need for such At the same time a national campaign on the police attacks hy bundreds of other workers. but not in sufficient numhers to close down the factory: an essential prerequisite to winning the strike. At nearby Clay Cross, the determin ed stand against the Housing Finance Act can only he maintained if it is extended, with wide support from the whole working class. With the experience of the last conference in mind, the left will have to make a determined effort to raise the question of an effective Action Committee, and the need to wotk towards Councils of Action to mobilise the working class against Phase 3 in prepuration for a General strike to bring down the Tory HARRY FERGUSON.
The conference should be supported by all students unions and the NUS should give full publicity to it: this conference represents a genuine attempt touchieve a united fight for more homes by students and the homeless. For detail of the conference, contact: Stering Committee for Accommodation Conference. Griernity of Sasser Orion, Palmer, Brigion, Saner RAY BURNS The net result of the alternative formula is that workers in industries where average pay lor male workers is E31 or less can get a little more than under Phase 2. For workers in industries where the average wage is betsreen 231 and 233 Phase 3 will offer less than Phase 2. Above #38, Pbase 3 gives a larger increase, but the major beneficiaries from this will be the higher salary earners who will gain considerably from the increase in the permitted maximum from 5250 to E850 a year.
Among the additional complications of the regulations is the possibility of threshold agreements allowing a 40p (or loss) inerease if the cost of living index goes up i per cont and a furtber 40p for every furcher 1 per cen rise in the index. Thresholds ure by no means automatic and have to be negotiated. So do the other permitied 'extras, like the additional 1 per cent in the total wage bill to cover 'special circumstances', as woll as productivity deuls, of which it appears ery few will be admitted as genuine.
All this 'flexibility" in comparison with Phase 2 will make very little difference to the total permitted increase for most wage earners. Its political purpose, however, is clear. It is pur there for the benefit of the trade union bweaucrucies so that they can appear to be doing plenty of real negotiating for the membership. But the truth is that over basic pay, which is what matters, Phase 3 maintains state control of wages as much as Phase 2 and the only bargaining which is permitted is over pettifogging and insignificant details. In terros of money wage increases then, for most workers Phase 3 will be similar to Phase 2. What happens to real take home pay depends in addition on taxation and inflation. There is