PORT Talbot is very industry town.
Tommy Lyons, secretary of the Electricians Union describes Port Talbot 'as a steel works Apart most people in Swansea depend on the giant BSC firm for their livelihood.
Built in the boom of the fifties, on the site of the old Abbey works, the new Port Talbot workforce looked forward to a rosy future.
But competition from abroad and the general slump in trade due to the economic crsis is now turealcuing ce workers South Wales, Port Llanwern.
The BSC are considering closing down either all of Llanwern Port Talbot or part of each. There are suggestions of Velindre being hived off to private enterprise.
Wyn Davies has worked in the blast furnace at Port Talbot since he left school:
much a cle plant, several oil refineries The at the newest steel plants in Talbot and For all of and ovens:
'If the plant closes, or even if there are some redundancies, I don't know what else I could do.
•Before the steei strike I thought we would be forced to leave Port Talbot. But now I think we can stop them. If the government won't give BSC the money to keep the plant open then we will just have to keep the plant open ourselves.' 'BSC management hope steelworkers in Wales will fall in with the ISTC line nationally and swop an increase in their pay packets for jobs.
carrot of large payments will be waved under the nose of the union leaders and the rank and file steei workers will be expected to cave in when it comes to selling jobs.
'But every day the strike continues realise that fighting a government that's rigid on pay and jobs. It has to be forced to give in on both.
Tom Evans works in the coke 'I think that the strike should be about jobs as well. In a way it is about jobs. If you don't have one a pay rise won't do you much good.' be greater than in • that the Britain.
redundancy pay and lobs Poll they argue, let's they' te have to start by steel jobs.
The left in Plaid think that the issues raised in the present steel dispute are the most important facing Wales since the 1930's.
Here the effects of steel closures will Many other parts of For us, the present call for industrial action is not just about pay The Welsh TUC has always argued that we can't isolate the two questions of They have sent mans delegations up to London to press this Unfortunately the TUE nationally and ISTC want to isolate these issues tackle pay first and then get on to the question of jobs. From the Welsh point of view this is useless. The issues are integrated ; opposing the strategy to shut down plants and cut For us in Plaid Cymru, this links up with the question of autonomy for the Welsh people. This would enable us to adopt different policies and to argue our case.
action does extremely will be in coal and steel.
should parliamentary thing that is really industrial action unemployment.
I don't BSC is not how things will change.
by anyway. A mandate from the Welsh people does not exist.
It is not clear what will now happen on 21 January about the Welsh TUC's call for action. If the proposed strike not go ahead I will disappointed. The going back on the leadership they have given so far -they will be letting down their members be arguing that debate like proposed for next Thursday is useless. Nothing will be gained by this. The only understood is firm The miners showed this in 1972 and 1974. The only way to deal with this gone ment is to and against agree Callaghan's nonsense about waiting for the Taris to work through their manda: Ts s the worst kind of social democrati nonsense from the Labour Party. This The Conservatiye government wa the people Socialist Challenge 17 January 1980 Page 9
By Geoffrey Sheridan IT'S AN open secret that Bill Sirs general secretary Steel Trades Confederation, is not a happy man. Few union leaders have found themselves at the centre of a national strike with such publicly proclaimed reluctance.
•My members want 20 per cent with no strings attached, ' he informed readers of The Times last Friday.
would not say it must be X per cent, Sirs continued. I am prepared to do all I cán to help the industry in restructuring.' And how far is the leader moderation prepared to go?
position has been very realistic.
offered considerable concessions they 1BSC have been wantine for vears multi-union bargaining level.
*I am not Dere to government,' Bill Sirs assured By Patrick Sikorski PRESIDING over a loss of 10,000 jobs every year for 14 years is the record of the leadership of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation.
Formerly BISAKTA (British Iron and Steel and Kindred Association), the union was created in 1919 from the amalgamation of 14 or so cratt unions.
The lack of any notable tradition of militancy in steel was, in large part, due to the 'contract svstem' dominated the industry a century ago.
Leading workers i the processes were paid a lump sum by the employers on a tonnage basis.
distributed the through their own gang. Steel worker was set against steel worker.
Although this type of sub-contracting has disappeared, the feature of, • seniority on the job and in the union: hierarchy has persisted.
Rule book Workers rise to more responsible jobs through experience and every job has its own rate. For example, in the of the Iron and there plainly enough.
This was at of negotiations 'Our docks.
at plant defeat the and five percent The productivity job Trades which various These and Times readers. He did not say that if the stee workers fake their end from him they can expect to be defeated by the government, but the message was the eleventh-hour held at the ISTC wHel the membership was already laying seige to the steel plants, stockholders, and Murray Sirs The generous demand of the ISTC leadership was for 8 per cent all round to be based weaken loss] deals.
JOHN HODGE. President of the old Union. time minister in Lloyd George's cabinet. were absolutely amazed when it was rejected,' Sirs commented. After all those years ISTC leaders after concession, rotten steel bosses wouldn't pull Sirs' chestnuts from the fire.
The TUC leadership has shown similar enthusiasm for the strike. Len put himself at the head desperate "peace' efforts. With the failure of these talks, Murray has joined the ISTC executive in trying to the effective picketing circulating the TUC'scode.
The record, past and present, of the steel union leaders points to one conclusion the should run their strike democratically through the formation of a national It is the strike committees which have mushroomed country which are leading the strike in the regions. meetings, benefits, and general information on the strike have all come through these by bodies.
If strike committees de it locally, Annual Delegate Conference of IST Cin 1978. Still nota policy-making body.
smallest disputes to joint arbitration step forward.
Action around the Picketing, mass effective.
OCCIEL 1964-69.
workers Allowing workers. working.
by 1978 they can do it nationally.
For the first time in the history of the steel unions, local representatives were consulted during the process of national negotiations. This was a tiny But it was the executive council of the ISTC which called the strike in consultation with the National Union of Blastfurnacemen, , and the strike could be called off in the same way.
Representative each local strike committee shond be sent to a national strike committee convened by the executive, or by a local strike committee if the executive refuses.
should he coordinated between areas and with other unions • make the strike 100 per cent A national body of those directly engaged in the struggle should decide whether the strike continues, whether it stops, and whether its objectives have been won — not Bill Sirs. Wales (now Port Talbot) between Over a five year period some 5485 were affected by 'demanning, a further 3431 by changes in working practices and 2054 as a result of technical change for retirement and deaths, the hard redundancy figure over the period was just under 3,000 January 1976 the Labour government proposed a £179 million cut in the wage bill of the industry at the price of 40,000 jobs. • Unofficial strikes at Port Talbot and other South Wales mills, with overtime bans in Sheffield and elsewhere were able to turn back the frontal assault on redundancy and guaranteed weeken But after a three week strike the Steel Industry Consultative Committee signed an agreement with the employers which called for 9,300 redundancies in the South Wales mills The ISTC South Wales organiser