Brighton and Hove Tr.des Council on Cbr Settle Ent

from a Brighton reader The following official statement was issued by the Brighton, Hove and District Trades Council on December 10th: "When the CBR dispute and lock-out commenced in April of this year, the Brighton Trades Council was asked for help by the men concerned. Having heard the facts we then resolved to give all possible support. The union concerned (National Union of Hosiery and Kindred Workers) declared this an official dispute and from that time our Tyades Council was in the position of giving assistance to a TUC union which had requested local help. "It is not our function to comment upon the internal affairs of any union, but it is necessary for us to state that we have been disappointed at the way in which the union concerned has tackled those measures which were necessary. We must make it perfectly clear that the agreement now reached was made without the slightest consultation at local level, either with the local union members or with the Trades Council. We are quite aware that every union has an absolute right to conduct its own affairs but in the absence of NUHKW local machinery and full time officials on the spot, it is this Trades Council which had to shoulder the burden and act as the rallying agent for support. In these circumstances, and considering the sympathy aroused in all quarters over a dispute with serious implications for workers everywhere, we do not consider that the NUHKW leadership should have stood on narrow legal and techni®al grounds, but could reasonably have accepted that we had a moral right to be consulted before such a vital decision was taken. " Not only have we not been consulted, we were not even officially informed of the decision. In the past week, disturbing rumours reached us of the NUHKW's possible intentions. We can now reveal that on Wednesday morning we sent a telegram stating our concern, appealing to them to consider the wider implications and requesting a meeting with their officials before a final decision was reached. This telegram has been ignored. On Friday morning we left a letter for the NUHKW officials at the their proposed meeting place in Brighton. In this letter we again asked them to meet us and Tfades Council officers stood by for the entire afternoon. This approach also was ignored. "Whatever token agreements are signed, we regard the test of CBR's sincerity to be the ‘ending of the 72-hour week, the payment of normal rates and provisions of tolerable conditions und the guarantee that any employee may openly belong to a union of his choice. This to include the re— instatement of those in dispute who wish to return, since our information is that the factory is not fully manned. "The Trades Council is convinced that local trade unionists will continue to regard CBR as "black" until such time as trade unionism and decent conditions exist inside the facbry. "To achieve these ends Council may wish to continue a picket line in order to enrol the present and future employees and help them towards decent wages and conditions." Contributions to the Lock—out Fund are more important than ever, they should go to: CBR Appeal Fund, 21, Vale aVeme, Patcham, Brighton, Sussex.