from David Robinson. pie ene Court Decision Disregarded by Michael Stewart At the Recorder Court in Belfast in April, two of the — = ong
sase of between £1 an a wee . 2 op from ASSET to abide by the court ruling Michael Rtewart — firmed that the wages of the 630 ASSET members employed by Harlan — Wolff mst be frozen to prevent them receiving more than they — : July 20 last year. This blatant disregard for a decision reache : covrt of law was made to " ensure that the employees concerned are pee more favourably treated as a result of the court action than the ie majority who have voluntarily accepted the standstill. This makes obvious that workers must take direct action to ensure that they receive | the fruits of their labour, Redundancies Follow Fawcett Takeover Nearly all the 320 people employed by the rubber plastics extrusion rachinery business of Fawcett Preston and Company of Bromborough, Cheshire - a Metal Industries subsidiary - will become redundant within the next three months, The redundancies will follow the acquisition of Fawcett by Tube Investments, the £260m. engineering group. Orders in hand will be completed at Bromborough = this should take about three months - and then production will be transferred to the Bournemouth works of Lowey Robertson, It will provide additional work for this company which, like the rest of the heavy machinery industry, has been hit by the cut-back in orders since the freeze. Some of Fawcett's staff will move to Bournemouth but a spokesman for MI said it was estimated that about 300 employees would be declared redundant, The factory and land at Bromborough will be sold off seperately and, when this is done, MI should net about £1 m. in cash for the complete deal, Mass Protest to Follow Enquiry, A mass meeting to protest at disciplinary action taken by the Amal ted Society of Woodworkers against militants connected with Myton's £5am. Barbican contract has been called by ASW members working on the Laing and Turriff Barbican sites, It is timed to follow the end of the public hearings of the Ministry of Labour court of inquiry into the long-drawn-out disputes on the Barbican and on Bernard Sunley's 25m. Government offices project in Horseferry Road, Picketing is still continuing on the sites to prevent work proceeding. A leaflet announcing the mass meeting accuses the ASW general secretary, George Smith, and the union's executive committee of "witch-hunting and discriminatory actions" and says the disciplinary action " helps the employers and is calculated to bias" the court. Myton, which is part of the Taylor Woodrow group, negotiated a special agreement with the building unions earlier this year to reopen. A detailed bonus system was laid down but Myton would have the right not to re-engage its old six-man works committee, The old committee continued to picket the site (its two leaders are among those being expelled from the ASW) and with the support of other workers on the Barbican it has successfully stopped work starting.