THE TORIES are axing of 10,000 jobs in British shipbuilding, which would add still more workers to the 1.. million already unemployed. The slightly more notimistic unemo ovment feures produced by the government recently will not last for long if closures on this scale are allowed to go ahead.
And shipbuilding is just the most recent to be hit. Thousands of jobs have already gone The spending cuts planned for the coming year will chop large numbers of jobs from the public sector.
There is no doubt that unemployment is a serious issue, both for those in and out of work, that's why lots of people will be on the Right to Work march this weekend. It's time to start fighting back. But countering unemployment is not as easy as all that, you've little power, in work it's easy to forget the whole issue.
The TUC and individual trades unions all with all the weight that the trade movement has at its disposal; could begin to defeat unemployment. One such policy is for a 35-hour week. A reduction of the working week by five hours for each worker would create new job vacancies and ensure that available work was more equitably shared around.
Most of the trade unions incode a demand for a 35-hour week in their wage claims each year, our luca orop te demano as soon as les get round the negotiating table. The Right to Work march will end with a lobby of the TUC in Blackpool. It should demand that the TUC organises a fight among its member unions for The problem is, of course, that this won't happen. Each year the TUC passes quite good paper policies, promising action quite often, Socialist Challenge 30 August 1979 Page 6 planning to approve the public because out of work which, if they were fought for union tney TRAD get the unions to set unemployed-worker sections for any of their members who are made redundant or have had particularly the youth, should fight for local trades councils to establish unemployed youth committees to take up the fight against youth This would lay the basis to ensure that the fight against unemployment is taken to the organised labour movement.
Unemployed workers would be able to fight within the unions for policies to defend their Many trade unions have taken the attitude voluntary redundancies CON