Socialist THE are TOU OUtI rail civil service unions, the rail unions, and ambulance workers very Thatcher's bludgeon has provoked them all into industrial action.
As Phil Dexter reports on page 15, members of main service unions have voted for allaction counter the Tories' intransigence ovel pay Even the leaders these unions recognise that tell organisanons will o crippled for years if the now bow to hatchers Substantal job cuts would cent norm be sure to follow.
The axe on the public sector is also threatening workers redundancies if the unions ahead with their 13 per cent claim.
The response by delegates annual conference of the train drivers' union ASLEF this week was to vote over whelmingly for strike action against British Rail's planned cuts to services. one-day • national strike is scheduled for next week Ambulance workers are another of rone Tories front line the Tories war on working class living standards. The govern has offered them pay rise of £5.89 a week in answer to their • claim for unree ames amount Without decent pay, he ambulalice seivil will decline still further Strike Next Thursday all ambulance workers in Britain wl be on one ov sake and the depth of militancy in Scotland and London is likely to mean that there will not even be emergent! cover in these areas.
The Callaghan govern ment, which tried to holo pay rises to 5 per cent, ex perienced the anger DuDic secto workers the so-called winter discontent Now the Thatcher a massive shake-out of the British economy in favour of the bosses, is coming up Fi ne occupation Laurence Scott and the struggle at Rovers are tur ther evidence of that.
The prime ministe may well be confident tha civil servants and other white-collar workers do have the industrial of the miners. whom she rapidly soughi to appease over the pit It would certainly be blow to all of us if the civi servants are crushed in the the postal during the early days of the Heath regime It's up to all of us, through our solidarity, to see thai that piece of history is not repeated.