The occupation of the Maclaren Controls factory (a subsidiary of ITT), is now in its fifth week.
The workers occupied this Glasgow factory after a so week strike, when they discovered that the man agement had begun to move plant, drawings and staff to Germany in order to continue prodection. During the strike, belleving (wrongly!) that the Sewards Committee was weak and the women works ers in particular would have no stomach for a long fight, ITT tried to split the worker by thneatening • lock-out and rodundancies now they are dotermanku to smas the AUEn and the shop sewers constilice in the lactory, They tw sacked ali the workers, and say that the bass for any settienion! must he a guarantee of two strike free yours They want to scrap all previous Union agreements and draw up new ones, and they want selecthe redundancies. The struggle at Maclaren's is therefore not simply for money, but to defend the lictihood of the workers and the Union organisation which defends and fights for them But the struggle is running into problems. After ken pruelling weeks on strike pay, which has included the Christmas and New Year period there ba danger of the initial mass support dwindling away. Already the number actually occupying the factory has dropped drastically, Those left realice Support Red Weekly -SUBSCRIBE!
Rates: 64 per year, £2 for 6 months Foreign to per year, 69 airmail Special offer! 12 issues for 50p Name Please send cash with order to: Red Weekly, 182 Pentonville rd, London N1 Red Workly 4 January 1974 Page B however that the price of defcal is massie redundancies, the loss of the carefully built Union urganisation in the factory, and a demoralising setback Jor the strugee or the who working class against Phase Three, The claim at Maclaren's is for incrouses withur Phase Thrus. If it cannot be won at a time a stride for a claim which would smash the pay Iws, the support and confidence of engineering sorkers in the West of Scotland an a whole for the AUEW claim would be dented.
The struggle now hangs in the balance. The only way to resist the pressure to backtrack on the pos don of no redundancies, and no retreat on the full The anly way to counter IT's advantagos, and to apply real pressure, is to campaign throughout IT's f7 subscharies in Britain to black all work being done under the same contract as at Maclarens. The ALEW has been making unquiries about other firms, and has sent out the usual letters asking for support Bat so far they have achieved nothing ungible, It a vital that the AUEW centralise all information on IT actiibes in Britain, and that they senths foam of speakers to the most important factories concerned to talke la ocher worken about this strugale. The anion shonid compile z dossier on the struegle against IT7 in Glasgow to send to