Last week the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) gave its reply to the claim presented by the Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions (CSEU) for £35 for 35 hours, 4 weeks annual holiday and equal pay for women.
Predictably, the union negotiating team led by Hugh Scanlon were told that they could only receive the amount permissable under Phase 3 £2.50 for skilled workers, £2 for unskilled and £1.80 for women.
The burning question now facing the engineers iswhat way forward? When the claim was adopted by the National Committee in Torquay earlier this year, Scanlon pointed out that this would inevitably mean a confrontation with the government. Since the AUEW leadership has been aware of the kind of confrontation involved in pursuing this claim from the beginning, horough preparations could have been made for this truggle. But, in fact, the Executive Council have done nothing except produce 200,000 leaflets publicising the claim -for over a million members!
OVERTIME BAN Now that the claim has been rejected Scanlon is going to have to come off the fence and commit himself to some specific form of action. The first indications of what this action might be came from a meeting of over 200 shop stewards in the Sheffield-based district of the CSEU on Sunday 2 December. That meeting called for a national overtime ban from 1 January. This is also likely to be the call that comes from the national conference of convenors and senior stewards in Manchester on 14 December. If this is the kind of action which the leadership of the CSEU opt for then all the talk about fighting Phase 3 and showing the employers we mean business will have been so much hot air.
An overtime ban in the engineering industry will spit me workers ngnt down the middie. Ine people who will be hardest hit will be the day workers (generally the lowest paid), since they often depend on overtime to maintain a decent income. Pieceworkers, on the other hand, will have the opportunity of making up some of their lost earnings by stepping up production. The gap which normally exists between the wages of pieceworkers and dayworkers will, therefore, be opened even wider, with the latter feeling that they are making the major sacrifice in the struggle. At a time when the unity of the engineering workers is vital this kind of tactic would be disastrous.
An overtime ban does not even make sense as a tactic to prepare for a strike. Engineering is not an industry which produces an item that is consumed from week to week like coal. If the miners plan on striking, then an overtime ban can be used to run down stocks of coal, thus ensuring that the strike would begin to bite штеатету. but te errect or running down stock: in the engineering industry would be extremely uneven. There are some firms who depend on a lot of overtime working to keep up with their order books. while others, particularly those on shift systems, do not depend so heavily on overtime. The EEF will centralise its resources and will be able to absorb any type of needling tactic, such as an overtime There is also talk of banning piecework as a second stage in the campaign, if no progress is made with the overtime ban. This proposal was defeated at the Sheffield conference, Its effect would also be extremely uneven. The likely result would be a drastic drop in production in some firms, leading to lock-outs. This would simply ensure the fragmentation of the struggle with no centralised united effort against the employers. The employers would then be able to pick off different sections of workers one by one. The lessons of the localised struggles over last year's claim should be borne in mind.
Quite apart from all this, the idea of an overtime ban looks particularly absurd when the employers could well have to put workers on short time because of the energy crisis. If the overtime ban is actually imposed then, obviously, there should be no scabbing since this would aggravate disunity even more than the overtime ban itself. But it must also be made clear that this kind of tactic will lead nowhere and agitation should be carried out during the overtime ban for the immediate calling of a full-scale national strike. NATIONAL STRIKE The challenge which the engineers are making to Phase 3 is a challenge to the entire strategy of the government. If Phase 3 is smashed, the ruling class will be thrown into a complete political crisis; they will be unable to put together even a temporary solution to British capitalism's economic problems. For that reason the government will not surrender on the wages front without a tremendous struggle. The engineers must prepare for precisely such a struggle-an all-out national strike. Anything short of this-such as overtime bans, bans on piecework, local strikes-will only divide and fragment the struggle. The workers will merely be sacrificing wages without seeing any real prospect of breaking the resistance of the employers. The engineers can well do without that kind of 'preparation. The national conference called by the rank and file paper Engineering Voice in September this year gave a lead by calling upon all militants in the industry to fight for a national strike to be called by the recall National Committee of the AUEW if the claim is not met.
This call should be taken up and pushed at every level within the union. Commitment to this policy by the national convenors' conference on 14 ror uns Doncy are aoertanant bistrict ere forward. Preparations should be made up and down the country for such a struggle. A national strike committee should be elected to co-ordinate actions during the strike. Local conferences of shop stewards should be organised to elect local strike committees and to plan a campaign amongst the membership to publicise the claim and to gear up for a national strike. Occupations of big factories in every area should be planned in advance in order to stop movement of stocks and to create bases for holding mass meetings and running the strike. MINERS-ENGINEERS ALLIANCE In addition to the engineers, 4 million other workers have wage claims in that go against Phase 3. If the working class united and centralised all its forces it could go into battle almost certain of victory. The miners are already in the front line of this fight. If the big battalions of the miners and the engineers went into struggle united they would give the go-ahead to other sections of the working class to throw in their forces. Such an alliance would act as a pole of attraction for the dockers, ambulance men, railway drivers, power workers etc, and the way would be opened for a general strike to bring down the Tory Government altogether.
The inclusion of the important demand of equal pay for women in the national engineering claim means that the fight for this claim can be a focus for the struggle of an important group of workers-women workers. A serious fight for equal pay would not only draw women engineering workers into the centre of the struggle, but ensure active support for a nationa engineering strike by women workers in all industries. Sheffield CSEU stewards meeting hands leaflets out beforehand Certain moves have already been taken towards unifying the present struggles. In Sheffield the District Committee of the CSEU have invited a miner to speak at all the meetings held as part of their campaign on the national engineering claim, and the recent CSEU stewards' meeting was addressed by a miner. A meeting of engineering delegates, held in connection with last Friday's lobby of the AUEW-EEF negotiations, overwegy adopica a resolution camng tor.. *a triple alliance of the AUEW, NUM and ASLEF, to organise an emergency conference for the calling of a General Strike to bring down the Tory government and elect a Labour government pledged to socialist policies.
These are all important steps forward, but by them selves they are not enough. Certainly, the national executives of the NUM and the AUEW should be called on to meet and plan a united strategy for struggle. But practical steps should be taken now to forge this unity at all levels. Representatives from pits across the country should have been invited to the convenors conference in Manchester. Joint conferences of engineering stewards and delegates from the pits should be organised in every locality. Decemper m Mancnester would bed D Last Saturday the Political Committee of the Communist Party stated in the Morning Star: "The TUC should be urgently recalled to mobilise the full industrial strength of the movement in solidarity behind the miners, train drivers, pensioners and every other section in the battle, und to smash Phase 3 and the Industrial Kelations Act. when we crsays tat the full strength of the labour movement should be mobi lised to smash Phase 3 they are absolutely correct, but the record of the general council of the TUC shows beyond doubt that they cannot be depended upon to do this.
The CP themselves denounced the TUC's talks with the Tories as a 'crime and a scandal. If these "criminals' can be forced into taking some action to fight Phase 3 all well 'and good, but to centre all our plans on this prospect is a recipe for defeat. The experience of the struggle to free the Pentonville 5 shows that the TUC will act only when they are forced to by the struggle of the rank and file.
The CP are in ah excellent position to initiate this kind of struggle against Phase 3. Many of their militants are in leading positions in the trade union movement, not cast ur une engineering and mung industries. They can play a decisive role in taking the necessary steps to 'mobilise the full industria