The strike at Mansfield Hosiery Mills in Loughborough by Indian workers remains solid. The workers are fighting for a £5 a week rise and for the removal of the colour bar that prevents them from being employed as skilled knitters. The finding by the Race Relations Board that Mansfield Hosiery and the National Union of Hosiery and Knitwear Workers have contravened the Race Relations Act has cast a spotlight on the whole dirty business.
The management, since sacking the two hundred strikers, has remained tight lipped. Not that they need to say much as Prendergast, general president of the union, has acted as a very energetic spokesman for their case. Scarcely a day passes without his attacking the strikers. He issued a statement that all the demands of the strikers had been met. The strikers then asked him to put this "agreement" in writing. This was refused. It was normal to have union agreements verbal explained the injured Mr Prendergast who felt that his honour was being impugned. The
Red Mole Reporter
strikers are only interested in a written and watertight agreement before they go back to work.
UNION STRUCTURE During the process of the strike the Indian workers have realised that it is essential to gain control of their union. At present there exists no branch structure but only a delegate factory committee. Not only has the factory committee no real powers. but whereas the majority of the workers are Indian, by a mysterious process the majority of the delegates represent the white skilled knitters. The mass meeting last Saturday spent a large portion of its time defending itself from the attacks of the full timers. Speakers argued that they paid the full timers who were their servants and in tuture if the union officials wanted to talk to them they would have to come to the Strike headquarters.
Attacks have been launched by the local press and by union officials on mysterious professional agitators. A Strike Committee member, at the Saturday mass meeting, replied that they would take help from wherever it was offered and that these "outsiders" had done more for the strikers than the officials who were employed to defend them. This was clear enough when the union national executive issued a statement the same day. An 8-point plan was produced. None of the points dealt with the rise, and there is one totally inadequate clause that calls for discussions on having Indians as skilled knitters after a return to.work.
CONFIDENT The mood of the workers is confident, but they are in severe financial difficulties. The local Social Security is refusing to pay out money in spite of the intervention of the Nottingham Claimant's Union. Money is being collected in Nottingham and Leicester but donations should be rushed to: The Strike Committee, 31, Station Street, Loughborough, Leics. down helping us on social security questions, communications and publicity, and we've also had financial support. We've seen the strength of the intelligence that's involved in these particular movements and we really appreciate their involvement. We know that the 1000 people involved in this struggle here are not going to win on the question of the right to belong, as well as the right to work, with just our own limited resources. We are very conscious of the value of these developments among the students in coming to our support here. They have never denied us anything we asked for and we can only say thanks very much.
In the future we will welcome any kind of support, but we particularly value the discussion that comes from the university students about the political questions. I'm afraid this is not being faced up to by our own leadership in the trade union movement and the Labour Party is also shirking this issue. They're not prepared to stand up and recognize these questions which are transforming the whole system which we live under. From what I've seen the majority of the students appreciate the social need for a whole tumultuous chanda in the wina enlina