"We have not had a pay raise since January 2001 and before that it took another two years, putting us way behind inflation and other factory workers," one worker said on September 25.

The textile workers are also combating the bosses’ attempts to reduce their guaranteed workweek. Dawson International, the company that owns both Barrie and Ballantyne Cashmere in Innerleithen, another town on the Scots-English border, is demanding the "harmonization" of wages and conditions in both plants before discussing pay raises.

The bosses issued an ultimatum that if the dispute is not settled by September 30, they will present workers with 90-day firing notices. Existing contracts would be torn up on the last day of the year and workers would be rehired on the employers’ terms.

For the workers at Barrie, "harmonization" includes losing a guaranteed four-day working week. One worker told the local press, "Three days is no use to anyone. Folk would be better off not working".

A co-worker added, "We feel like they are trying to bring annualized hours in the back door by offering to pay us a five-day week when we are working three and then taking the money back when we are busy."

The bosses’ proposal of annualization of hours would mean that workers are paid for five days’ work every week but must accept longer hours when the mills are busy and shorter hours when demand drops. Such schemes mean a forced lengthening of the workweek without overtime pay.

In May, bosses laid off 39 workers from Barrie and nine from Ballantyne. They have since introduced short-time work at both plants, blaming a downturn in business.

Workers at both plants struck over the pay increase July 12. A worker at Ballantyne, who asked not to be identified by name, told the Militant: "We were told there was no money for us workers at the same time as [Dawson International chief executive Paul] Munn got an £87,000 bonus" (£1=US$1.57).

When bosses at Ballantyne Cashmere were informed of the decision to strike they announced a short workweek. "By the close of that day we were told we were going on a three-day week." said Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) convenor Irene Bell. The TGWU represents workers at Ballantyne while those at Barrie Knitwear are members of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union (GMB) members.

The 259 workers at Ballantyne took part in a further half-day strike on August 14 over wages, before voting 88 percent in favor of accepting "harmonization." Under the proposed terms, they would be better off than they are now, as a four-day week would be assured for the first month of any period of short time. Unlike the Barrie workers in Hawick, Ballantyne workers do not currently have a guaranteed four-day week.  
 
How guaranteed four-day week was won
The guaranteed four-day week, which applies mostly to Hawick mills, was won 30 years ago. In 1972, 5,500 knitwear workers in Hawick waged a five-week strike against the bosses’ organization, the Hawick Knitwear Manufacturers Association. Pickets were organized at every mill, and strikers set up a caravan as a field kitchen to feed the pickets with food and drink donated by local residents. Strikers took down the Queen’s Award for Industry flag from one mill. Fifty extra police were brought in from other areas and the "Welcome to Hawick" sign outside the town was overhung with a sign saying "Welcome to Dawson City...a police state". Gains won included a wage increase and extra holiday.

"At least it showed that the Hawick folk were prepared to fight for their rights," one strike veteran recalled.

Dawson International reported a £900,000 loss in operating profits for 2001 and has predicted another loss this year. Turnover for the first six months of 2002 fell to £24 million from £37.5 million for the same period last year. Like many other bosses, the company has blamed the impact of the September events and a global slowdown in demand for the slump in orders for their product.

Dawson procures raw cashmere fiber from Inner Mongolia, cleans and processes it in China, spins the yarn in Scotland for international fashion businesses and knits for some top fashion designers. The final products sell for between £200 to around £2,000.

Harry Laws is a meat worker in Scotland, Carol Ball, also a meat worker, contributed to the article.  
 
 
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