La heavy defeat on the workers at this site resulting in several leading militants being forced on to the streets. Although this was a severe set-back for the entire movement in Birmingham, the radicalising effects of previous struggles has meant that other sections of the movement have proved themselves capable of continuing and extending the struggle. The biggest demonstration of Birmingham building workers ever held took place on Friday, 12 July, when 4.000 building workers took the day off in support of the UCATT national claim of £30 a week for 35 hourse.
The following interview was held with John Mahon, UCATT stop steward from Woodgate Valley B site, who was one of the three militants to occupy Bryants' cranes in protest against the blacklisting of Alan Pryor, another UCATT steward. John Mahon has himself since been laid off.
Can you explain the course of the struggles within the Birmingham building trade which led up to the recent defeats of the Bryants workers?
We came out on strike around the middle of April after Bryants had refused to conform to the guaranteed company agreement. This agreement had been ripped up by Bryants after we had organised a go-slow on the site in support of our demand for two days hol iday witn pay over Easter. In reply to this action by the employers, eleven sites came out on strike to demand the re-instatement of the company agreement. However because the strike was not made official, and because of the activities of the union officials, by the end of the first week of strike only three sites were left out. At that time the U.C.A.T.T. officials assured the men on the three remaining sites that if they returned to work they would have the agreement re-instated and the holiday pay granted within a fortnight. This swayed a number of the men, and on the following Monday (May Ist, the day on which we had planned a one day stoppage) we were forced to return to work. We also had to go back with blacklegs because the union officials could not, or would not, do anything about them.
In fact the union officials did not get the agreement re-instated. Neither did they get the blacklegs removed. After these failures many of the men became demoralised and began to lose confidence in their union. It was then that Bryants saw their opportunity.
They realised that the officials did not want to lead a real struggle, and that the Can you tell us more about the role of the Union officials during the struggle?
The officials first showed their true colours during the mass meeting to discuss taking strike action when the dispute over the tearing up of the company agreement originally arose. This meeting was held in the Top Rank suite which holds about 500 people. About 1,500 building workers turned up. The meeting had been called by the union officials themselves, and after the vote was taken on whether or not to continue the strike they effectively wrecked the meeting. The majority in favour of continuing the strike was quite clear after a show of hands but they refused to believe it. We then split the room up into three and the stewards counted the votes in each section, but still this was not acceptable to the officials. The final unbelievable thing they did was to try to get all those people in an absolutely packed room in favour of the strike to stand on one side, and those against on the other. The inevitable result was that the meeting ended in complete chaos.
Then after nine sites continued the strike after this meeting the officals went round all the site canteens and told the men that they must return to work as they were the only people authorised to call a strike. While, and immediately after the strike was in progress they would not let the union offices be used for shop stewards meetings which was obviously imperative. There was also a black out of information from the officials. We could not find out exactly what was going on or how negotiations were going, neither could we get the officials out to the jobs. On one occasion, a steward from Woodgate Valley phoned the union office from nearby and was told that there was no-one in. He went rowid to the union office within ten minutes and found them all sitting there drinking tea!
On the Monday morning after the strike collapsed, the convenor steward was issued with a transfer to a job that had about three weeks work left on it. He refused the transfer and was told that if he continued to refuse he would be sacked. He called in the trade union official to force him to call a through the production of leaflets, the role of the UCATT officials, what the union should be doing, and how the rank and file can rid itself of bureaucracy. We are also holding factory gate meetings, taking different sites every day and urging the men time after time not to rip up their union cards, not to leave the union, but to carry on the struggle and fight against the union bureaucracy.
What do you think of the programme put forward by the IMG within the Charter which advocates a struggle for the winning of workers vetos against the prerogatives of the bosses to hire and fire, move workers around, etc., and for the decasualisation of labour?
I agree with the programme put forward in The Red Mole (The Red Mole 42,15 May 1972) absolutely.
There is an encouraging postscript to this interview in that many of the 50 blacklegs left on the Woodgate Valley B site have also been affected by the new wave of militancy in the trade and are in favour of coming out in support of the national claim.
It is also interesting to note that the site has been unable to find any bricklayers or carpenters since the dismissal of the preyious workers. As we have pointed out before, a precondition for the success of any attempt to expand the economy by the government is the weakening of the trade union movement. An attack on Social Security payments to strikers is one way of doing this - indeed the Evening News article even went so far as to describe it as "Heaths's hidden trump", "his ace in the hole". The State has also attempted to salvage what it can from the experience of the miners' strike: according to the Kentish Gazette (7 July) : "Every miner's claim for supplementary benefit Buring their winter strike was investigated by the Department of Health and Social Security, Dover magistrates were told on Monday, As a result of the massive operation 10 Betteshanger Colliery miners were fined a total of E201 for claiming too much."
All these signs point to a concerted attack by the State on Social Security payments to strikers in the near future. it is an attack which must be resisted as vigorously as other aspects of the offensive against the trade union movement, for its success would very seriously prejudice the ability of workers to stay out over a long period without substantial strike pay. Moreover, the nature of this struggle also means that revolutionaries will have a particularly valuable role to play in it.
on Manchester sites