Militant struggle by black workers has forced the racialist outlook of many trade union officials into the open. Struggles at Imperial Typewriters, Nuneaton Art Castings and North London Standard Telephones and Cables have been instrumental in exposing these attitudes.
In a belated response, the TUC has announced its intention to set up an equal opportunity committee and has recommended that equal opportunity clauses be written into all collective agreements.
But such a recommendation will remain a dead letter unless taken up by the rank and file of the trade unions. A black workers’ charter must be worked out. It should have the perspective of strengthening black and white workers’ unity in a counter-offensive against the crises of capitalism. It would act as a guide for our day-to-day anti-racialist work in the trade unions.
Hitting black workers
Black workers have borne the brunt of unemployment in every post-war recession. Black unemployment rose 2½ times faster than the general rate between November 1973 and May 1975. This figure is even higher for black women and black youth.
Racial discrimination means black workers suffer disproportionately from the general attacks on the working class. In the 1971/2 recession black unemployment in Birmingham more than doubled in a year while overall unemployed/employed ratios went from 1/11 to 1/8.
Two reasons account for black workers going out of the factory gate first:
The acceptance by trade union negotiators of the “last-in, first-out” principle which directly hits black youth and black women workers who are often the last to have been taken on.
Trade union officials’ acceptance of voluntary redundancy. Many black workers who have relatives abroad to support are wooed by the pay-outs accompanying voluntary redundancy into giving up their jobs without a fight. An offer of several hundred pounds will seem attractive to a worker supporting a family in Bangladesh where that family can live for £5 a month.
When black workers see no other way of meeting their responsibilities, their will to struggle is sapped.
Lump-sum payments may also be used by workers to visit families barred from this country by savage anti-worker and racialist immigration laws. Visits mean invariably that the worker will lose his job, has little chance of being re-employed and will certainly lose any accrued pension rights and increments.
Leave of absence rights
In some plants the whole work force has united behind demands for special holiday provision for foreign-born workers. At Cannon Industries, near Dudley, the AUEW secured an agreement for the right to leave of absence for West Indian and Asian workers. White workers in the plant supported this demand throughout a 13-week strike. The black workers in effect won the right to ten weeks leave of absence every four years. Under the agreement, the black workers will be restored to their jobs at their previous rate when they return. The struggle has developed a very experienced group of Asian and West Indian shop stewards. A similar agreement is being sought by the AUEW at Albion Bottles at Oldbury.
With soaring unemployment it is far easier for management to introduce policies aimed at dividing workers along racial lines. The National Front fascists have already begun organising in Midland car plants behind the slogan “last-in, first-out”, hoping that this demand will split black and white workers’ unity.
Management at the Birmid Qualcast’s foundry of Midland Motors Cylinders has attempted over the last two months to secure a passive response from white shop-stewards by promising that black workers will be sacked first. To this end, wage cuts were introduced in a number of foundries where black workers were in a majority as a preliminary to easing them out altogether. The workers successfully resisted the wage cuts and the previous rates were re-introduced. Now the management has issued 100 redundancy notices and threatened another 300 at the end of December even though Birmid’s profits last year were £10 million.
Trade union officials must not be allowed to agree to redundancies at the expense of black workers. Multi-racial solidarity with any workers threatened with the sack must be organised. The fight must be carried out around the following demands:
Work or full pay. No voluntary redundancies. Leave of absence rights for foreign-born workers.
