The decision of the National Industrial Relations Court to seize Represented there will be some of the dramatic new attack on the most basic and hard-won right of the workers" movement- the right to strike.
AUEW members at the Con-Mech factory in Woking are on strike over the question of union recognition and the victimisation of 24 trade unionists by the company. The NIRC has declared this strike illegil because it did not follow the procedures laid down in the Industrial Relations Act, and has ordered the men back to work. It is the refusal of AUEW members to obey this dictate which has Ted to the seizure of union assets and the threat of a fine in excess of £50,000.
The pathetic response of Scanion and the AL/EW executive to this revival of the hated Industrial Relations Act is an announcement to the world that the trade union leaders-the "left" variety Included-are unwilling to undertake a serious fight against the Tories. With the very basis of trade unionism under attack, Scanion could find nothing better to do than try and join the long queue of trade union bureaucrats waiting, cap in hand, for an audience with Heath on the Phase 3 proposals.
The AUEW executive has stepped in to prevent Scanion going along with the rest of the TUC sell-out artists to Downing Street on Monday, but they have left the door open for his return to the lalks at a later date, As far as the NIRC attack is concerned, all they have done is publish a lengthy brief on the Con-Mech dispute and asked their members to give 'tangible evidence of support "if called upon".
As the case of the Pentonville 5 showed, the NIRC can be defeated but only by massive industrial action, Steps must be taken immediately to The myth of the invincibility of the the Engineering Union's assets represents prepare such a reply the moment that a penny of union members" funds are touched by the NIRC.
If this is not done the only alternative will be a squalid retreat that will strengthen the Tories hand against the trade unions and guarantee that they turn a deaf ear to trade union protests over Phase 3 or anything else. And what about the Engincering Employers" Federation with whom Scanlon & Co are currently negotiating? The spectacle of a full-scale retreat by the AUEW can only inspire them to laugh in the face of the claim for a E10 rise and a shorter work week.
A real mobilisation of the AUEW and the rest of the trade union movement against the NIRC would serve as a very important preliminary battle in preparation for all-out war against Phase 3 and the Tory Govern- ganised to coordinate industrial action ment. A victory in this fight would inspire the enthusiasm and spirit of struggle of millions of workers, and sow fear in the ranks of the ruling class and their agents.
This Saturday the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) will be meeting in London. most powerful shop stewards' com mittees in the AUEW and the T&G who are presently before the NIRC in a claim against them for compensation because of trade union activity at Heathrow. A call from this body for national industrial action against the NIRC would mean that any fine would be greeted with a shutdown of the car industry, the docks, much of the transport system, and many important industrial concerns. However, it is likely that the Communist Party, who control the LCDTU, will be unwilling to take such a course, lest it should threaten their already uneasy alliance with left bureaucrats like Scanion. In that eventuality it will become more urgent than ever that militants in local trade union branches and individual shop stewards committees begin a campaign in favour of industrial ac tion against the NIRC.
Every branch resolution calling for mass industrial action and every shop stewards committee pledged to stop work, in the event of a NIRC fine agianst the AUEW, is another nail in the coffin of the NIRC, Industrial Relations Act, and Tory Government that created them both. Such steps must be taken immediately, and local conferences or throughout every area.
A victory for the working class movement aglanst the NIRC at this time will open the road for a victorious offensive on the wages front and against the Government. It would be the first step towards a generul strike to force the Tories out.