On 9 June, 44 Pakistani workers employed by the Nottingham private firm of Crepe Sizes Ltd. won a two week long strike against five redundancies and for union and shop steward recognition. The facts of the dispute are briefly as follows:The factory, prior to the dispute, employed about 60 people -44 of whom were Pakistanis engaged in production work. These latter men wete working an 84 hour week, consisting of twelve hour shifts, seven days a week. For on 240.08 per week day rate. The longs pay long hours, for all practical purposes, were a condition of employment, Crepe Sizes Ltd. have, over the years, gen scant attention to matters of safety and hygiene. The 44 men shared one toilet, which was usually filthy. Another toilet which was blocked two years ago had not been cleared up to when the strike started. The machines are dangerous but inadequate irst aid facilities were laid on and over the last four years three men have had serious accidents, involving the loss of a finger or part of a finger. Far from receiving any compensation for these accidents, all these three men got from the firm was the sack. During their twelve hour daily stint, the workers had a lunch break consisting of half an hour. The firm's canteen had only four chairs in it and was used by the handful of English employees, who objected to sharing the canteen with their Pakistani fellow workers.
For some time past the men had been putting demands to the management relating to their basic pay and working conditions. On 19 May they joined the T&GWU. Shortly afterwards the management declared five of the men to be redundant, including a shop steward, due to "contraction of demand within the man-made fibres industry". The workers demanded a reduction in the working week in order to avoid the redundancies. When the management rejected this demand, the men walked out. This was on 27 May. Shortly after the strike began, the management declared that the men had dismissed themselves by failing to report for work, and advertisements were placed in the Nottingham Evening Post ottering jobs at Crepe Sizes at up to E40 a week , no mention naturally of the strike, the hours or the conditions.
Throughout the dispute, the men maintained a large daily picket and were successful in preventing any new employees from being taken on, However, Crepe Sizes English employees remained at work, hoping, no doubt, that their chances of receivine gold watches on retirement would not be jeopardised. The Nottingham Branch of the I.M.G., together with the Black People's Freedom Movement and other organisations formed a Solidarity Committee, which organised a financial appeal, helped with picketing and sought to put pressure on the local bureaucracy of the wow to make he suke osca. Dy con tacting individual members of the Union. A public meeting was organised at which over E50 was collected. The T&GWU hardly emerged with distinction. Right up until 9 June, calm reigned at the local Union office; Ray Thorpe, the Area Organizer, retaining a demeanour of serenity, which was truly remarkable under the circumstances, only allowing himself to get upset at the leaflets put out by the Solidarity Committee in support of the members of his Union. However, on 9 June, the clamour was such that he roused himself to see the management, who promptly caved in.
The battle at Crepe Sizes is not over. Whilst hours have been reduced from 84 a week to 60, conditions remain utterly unsatisfactory. However, the men are now in a much better position to fight the management than hitherto. The dispute highlights a far too frequent phenomenon in industry: the employment of black workers on wages and conditions which belong to the 19th Century. Taking advantage of the difficulties that black workers have in finding jobs and, also, of the fears that black workers have with regard to the implications of the Immigration Act, firms see opportunities to make super profits at the expense of one particular section of the working class. The apathy which the organised labour movement in Britain has shown towards the conditions of black workers, not just apathy but often hostility, demonstrates the need that black people have for their own organisations. Nevertheless, a victory has been won in this strike in Nottingham, a victory from which black workers and white workers in similar positions can take heart and learn the important lessons that firms like Crepe Sizes can be beaten and that Union bureaucrats can on occasion be forced into action. The Solidarity Committee formed because of this strike is remaining in being, so that similar struggles can be aided in the future.
B.T.Simister, Industrial Organiser, Nottingham Branch of the I.M.G.