TONY YOUNG, an executive member of the Post Office Engineering Union, is standing as union president.
Left in POEU, he told Socialist Challenge how the issues facing the union should be taken up.
The POEU was one of the first unions to take action on the 35-hour How did weeK Indu It arose from the rank and determination achieve a shorter working week.
The policy of 35 hours '70s, in lne cariy but the executive took no action policy. The left, which was much soner man reas ed that rank and file action was one anal continued pressure on the executive would make the difference.
The London North Central Internal branch took unofficial action and it won overwhelming sup port irom the membersnip, despite attempts by the leadership to discipline the branch.
It had caught the mood A supporter of the Broad of the moment because the new technology was beginning to be seen as a threat to jobs. The executive was dragged kicking into the I think the left made a mistake in characterising the 37½-hour 'nil-cost settlement sell-out.
as a The agreement was put to conference, admittedly recommendation executive. but although compromise it was a pioneering struggle.
I think it would have been worth ignung on al that time. There was a feeling among the memership that had Only just begun to flex our muscles A recent managemen1 •ocument estimated that 11,000 installation iobs are at risk. What is the feeling now in the shorter working week? Tony Young: 'the time is right to act on shorter The breaking of monopoly telecoms, with sections being hiver off to private capital, will make fight IucI harder. We have yet to see the full extent of that.
but inis is not an excușe to abandon our campaign. We haveto broader the fight to other unions.
proposal this year's conference calls for the union to push ahead on 35 industrial action to back up the claim. . It's difficult to say how far the membership will swing behind it.
I think the executive is илпкс to want to lake this on board, given the Laculal problems fighting to prevent the breaking ot tell be o monopoly would task and we will see how the membership feels about it at the conference.
Surely the attacks on Telecoms workers brougnt on by increasing competition makes the fight ShOrtel even more important?
I do think the time is right. WITn 3m there is a moral justificaDON for our claim socialist government be fighting unemployment, by reducing both the working week and the state pension age.
There is a feeling of revulsion against the Tories' policy of increas ing unemployment weapon to smash the unions. But there isn't a determination by union leaders fight these policies.
We will face attacks as competition increases, but that could be used as an argument for not fighting on any issue!
Since Mitterand won the French presidential The has announced his support for a legal limit of 35 hours on ine working week The British TUC has had this policy for years. So what should it do now?
Obviously it should be mounting a fight around the policy. Low the Daily Herald cartoonist, charac terised the TUC as a tired old cart-horse. It hasn' People's March was not initiated from the nationally came about because ot rank and file pressure in the badlyhit North-west region easier for inPost Office engineer at work. The union dividual employers or the pick off conference will be considering positive action for in a blare of publicity, ti very little afterwards.