The redundancies in Steel come after one of the worst productivity deals ever signed. This was the infamous Green Book. This gave the employers everything they wanted. In particular this had typical productivity deal agreements on I) Controlling pay nses and fringe benefits (e.g., supposed "guaranteed five day week) in exchange for ending demarcation lines and shop stewards power. This included Morgan and Abbey Works, for example; making craftsmen and maintainance men work in groups the size of which would be decided upon by the management and world be responsible for the raising of their own scaffolding etc., complete mobility and interchangeability of craftsmen, the managements right to set up "mobile task forces" for both day and night work, craftsmen to work without assistance. The agreement stated quite simply that "All employees to be freely available to undertake any work within their existing or lower job grade and within a higher job grade subject to the limitations of their competence, i.e., disregarding all existing demarcations. efficient to benefit the men was shown to be The term "freely available' means capable of being deployed with full mobility anywhere on or off the Division's premises." 2) As far as shift work was concerned it was simply stated in the same division that "All employees will work on days or shifts for short or long periods as required. ... Any day employee asked to cover a shift vacancy or his normal working day hours." 3) In the event of disputes managements decisions are to be binding until such time as agreement can be reached, Where agreement has been reached over practice changes, but there is disagreement over payment, previous rates are to prevail until agreement is reached; 4) The only proposal which the union appears to have made is that job evaluation should be introduced immediately after work study. The whole idea behind the Green Book was that it would increase the "efficiency" of the industry. The actual agreements show that the basic question of 'efficiency for who was never asked by the union. BISAKTA and the other unions clearly believe that what is good for the firm is good for the men. The Green Book and its results show clearly that this is not the case. The firm gained but the men lost. What is more the whole idea of making the industry more a fraud. Despite all the concessions made by the unions the steel workers are still faced with thens of thousands of redundancies. Worse still this comes at a period of the highest unemployment for 30 years.
One of the reasons why such a deal was arrived at, can be seen in the functioning of the main union in the industry-BISAKTA. In this union 1) Rule 4 allows the executive great powers over its members with wordings to rules inčluding such phrases as "at the expediency of the council" etc. 2) Rule 19-Shop Dispute (Part 2) states *It shall not be permissible for any member or members to strike his or their employment without the authority and sanction of the Executive Council. Rules such as these are viciously enforced. For example, at Corby 13 members were expelled from the union for taking part in an "unofficial" strike. 3) There is no annual delegate conference and all area officials are appointed and not elected. The E.C. members are 'elected ' from each area and represent "work sections'. However, as the links between E.C. and shop floor are so weak the names of the area representatives are virtually unknown. The importance of having an annual delegate conference can clearly be seen if the area set up is analysed. One area does not know what another area is doing, and there is very little exchange of information. Given the confuses wages structure of steel, such information is of vital importance. The creation of endless divisions reduces the impact of the union in the wages struggle It also greatly strengthens the position of the union bureaucracy. The union, because of this set up, can carry on national negotiations and policy with almost total disregard for the interests of the mass of the union membership. The Green Book is a good example of this, Another is that on the same day in January 1969 that the British Steel Corporation announced a plan for 40,000 loss of jobs BISAKTA met to decide whether to take strike action. But it was not a strike against redundancy discussed. It was over whether to take orders from staff and supervisors who would not join BISAKTA!!
The struggle for union democracy inside BISAKTA-the struggle for annual delegate conference, for regular election of all union officials, for rank and file control over negotiations, is going to be a hard and difficult one. But if sell outs such as that over the Green Book and over redundancy are going to be avoided in the future, such a fight is going to be vitally necesWhile the struggle inside the union goes on there is still a vital necessity for the creation in all areas of rank and file steel workers committees and papers which will not only fight within the unions but also will try to lead militant action against the steel bosses.
Robert Mossgeil The Red Mole 12th December 1971 Page 5