BY ANNE HOWIE AND PAUL GALLOWAY
MANCHESTER, England - Paul Davies, who is fighting a political sacking from the Electrium electrical engineering factory here, was fired a second time June 5. Davies had been working a temporary contract at P.I. Castings, a foundry, for a week when he was called into the office and told he was fired, not because there was anything wrong with his work, but because his previous employer had given him a bad reference.

Davies was sacked by Electrium April 3 and escorted off the premises. While the company claimed there was no work for him but he would get a good reference, Davies maintains that he was fired because of his trade union and political activity. Many of his workmates agree. Since that time Davies and his workmates have waged a campaign for his reinstatement.

Fact sheets detailing the company's attack have circulated widely in the factory, and 88 workers so far have signed a petition calling on Electrium to reinstate Davies. One worker cut out an article about Davies' fight that was run in the Militant, put it in a plastic sleeve, and passed it round the factory for others to read.

Davies is known among many of the 500 workers at the plant for his view that working people throughout the world need strong, effective unions. He is a member of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Workers Union and of the Communist League. The fact sheet explains, "He engages in civil discussion with his workmates about a programme to strengthen the labour movement: against temporary contracts which pit worker against worker; for a shorter working week which can unite employed and unemployed.... Paul is well known for his activity in campaigning to get the British troops out of Ireland. [He] has introduced a number of workmates to political papers, books, and pamphlets."

After the June 5 sacking, Davies said, "this latest move is an escalation of the attack, since it amounts to blacklisting. It certainly proves that Electrium got rid of me for political reasons. And it shows how bosses act together, as a class, against workers."

On hearing about the latest sacking, many workers at Electrium were angry. "That's blacklisting!" said one. "It was wrong the first time," said another, "but this is well out of order." Now supporters of Paul Davies have produced a new fact sheet reporting the recent sacking, and distributed it at the plant gate. One worker has put a copy up inside the factory.

Prior to the latest development, a May 28 Militant Labour Forum titled, "Fight the political sacking of Paul Davies," was addressed by Davies. The meeting also heard a report on the strike by care workers from elderly people's homes in Tameside, Greater Manchester by Joan Ashton, one of the strikers.

An Electrium worker at the meeting explained some of the background in the factory prior to the sacking and subsequent reinstatement fight. The worker, who asked that her name not be reported, said, "One of the reasons that there is so much support is that this is a factory where the management have been trying to make a lot of changes. A lot of people like what is on the fact sheet because it is having a go at the company and that is what they want to do."

She described some of the skirmishes that have happened over the last few years - some of which workers won, others they didn't. Workers walked out over the heat in the factory in 1995; circulated a petition to force the company to recognize a new union convenor they elected, and in 1996 held a series of unsuccessful one-day strikes demanding shop floor workers, most of whom are women, get sick pay, as the men in the tool room do.

In the wake of these strikes, she said, the company started to employ a lot of workers on temporary contract "to undermine working conditions of all workers. The temps are put under pressure, and live in fear of not getting their contract renewed....

"But not all the temps keep their head down." She said the first signature on the petition for reinstatement was by a worker on a temporary contract. Another temp has been passing round the fact sheet.

Davies' trade union branch has passed a resolution of support for the reinstatement fight. In addition to campaigning at the factory gate, Davies has decided to submit a claim of unfair dismissal to an industrial tribunal.

While generally a worker must be employed for two years before having the right to go to an industrial tribunal, in the case of discrimination, on the grounds of sex, race, or previous trade union activity there is no time restriction.  
 
 
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