Fight the bosses' offensive

THE NATIONAL Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) steering committee held its latest meeting on 9 May. Amongst issues discussed were the sacking by his employer of Rob Williams, NSSN vice-chairperson, the struggle at Visteon and the No2EU European election campaign.

Kevin Parslow

The committee gave its full support to Rob and will be organising a public meeting following the Unite demo in Birmingham on 16 May. We urge the Unite leaders, particularly Tony Woodley and other trade union leaders, to vigorously defend Rob and other victimised trade unionists. We support action workers take in support of Rob and others.

Frank Jepson, convenor at Visteon Basildon made a short contribution and was warmly applauded for the Visteon workers' stand. He thanked those trade unionists who had stood by the workers in the three plants when they lost their jobs and occupied the plants. The redundancy payments extracted from Visteon and Ford are a vindication of their action.

Alex Gordon of the RMT faced questioning on his union's No2EU initiative for the European elections. The need to broaden out the campaign in the short time remaining was emphasised and that the campaign should strive to get as much publicity as possible out to workers.

Much of the meeting was taken up by organising this year's NSSN conference, to be held in London on 27 June. The major theme is 'fighting back to save jobs'.

Speakers confirmed include Rob Williams, Keith Gibson, a leader of the Lindsey oil refinery workers, Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association and a speaker from Visteon.

There will be workshops including on Lindsey, the car industry, Royal Mail privatisation and the attacks on public services. A full agenda will be sent out shortly to all supporters of the NSSN.

Any trade unionist prepared to fight back will be welcome at this conference. Get delegations from your branch and stewards' committees to the conference to discuss the way to fight the bosses' offensive!