Week of Protest over Roberts-Arundel Dispute.
This week marks a new stage in the nine month old dispute at the Roberts-Arundel works in Stockport, Cheshire, where the picket lineshave been manned since 140 strikers were sacked last November after a series of disputes with the American management of the company, Workers from factories throughout Stockport are participating in an 'action week' called by the Roberts-Arundel Joint Action Committee, Workers at the Henry Simons, Hawker Siddeley and Mirrless National works have decided to stop work on Friday in solidarity with the strikers, Many other factories in the area are expected to declare their support for the stoppage, which is expected to be almost total in the engineering factories, A mass picket is to be mounted at the factory where, despite the mass demonstration of Stockport workers in February, the management have refused union recognition, At the February demonstration a number of workers were arrested by the police and fined, Despite instructions from the AEU National Office that the strike cannot be supported 12,000 workers in the area have pledged their support behind the Joint Action Committee, John Tocher, AEU District Secretary, told reporters, 'This week will be a massive effort to bring this strike to a successful conclusion’, The workers are determined to carry on the struggle until their union is recognised and the sacked workers are reinstated,
Brighton Hosery Workers in 2lst Week of Fight for Union Recognition. 15 workers in Brighton who have been picketing the CBR Jersey Mill Ltd,, factory, for 13 hours a day since April this week,entered their 2lst week dispute with CBR with the issuing of the 'CBR Lockout News', The bulletin claims that since the dispute started the price of CBR shares have fallen from 5/9 to 3/43. Both the T & GWU have refused to do work for CBR; the AEU have blacked repair work on CBR machines at Wildt-Mellor - Bromley, and the chemical workers are — blacking the supply of die-chemicals to firms that do dying and finishing for CBR. The dispute started when CBR demanded that the workers should sign over a sixpenny stamp, a declaration that they would not join the union, This action followed an attempt by workers in the factory to organise themselves to improve conditions - the working week at CBR was 72 hours, The dispute culminated last week with the issuing of a writ for libel against George Dearing the, Hosier workers president after he had circulated shareholders of the company about the dispute, Delegates at the TUE conference will be given a broadsheet explaining the dispute and it is expected that both the Chairman of the Brighton Trades Council and the NUHKW president will raise the matter in conference, Donations and requests for speakers should be sent to : JOINT CBR ACTION COMMITTEE (CBR Lockout Committee) BRIGHTON TRADE COUNCIL SECRETARY, MIKE TAYLOR, 7, SILLWOOD PLACE, BRIGHTON,