"I’m really pleased with the turnout here," commented Cammy Renwick, pointing to the nearly 80 workers who had turned out for picket duty early in the morning. Drivers of passing vehicles tooted their horns in response to an appeal on a placard, while any appearance by the plant bosses was appropriately jeered.

"They’re trying to take our rights away," said Renwick, who has been at the plant for 17 years.

Union steward Gary Cook explained that while the dispute had begun in January over a wage claim, the parent company Dawson International "wants to change our conditions. There’s no money on the table until we accept that. They want to ‘harmonize’ conditions here with their Innerleithen plant, so we sign away the guarantee to a four-day week."

Workers at most of Hawick’s mills won a four-day working week through a five-week strike in 1972 that involved 5,500 union members. Other workers, including those 28 miles away at Innerleithen, were never granted the improved conditions.

With the seasonal nature of much of the work in the area, known for the production of high-price cashmere garments, workers see a guaranteed week as an important protection.

Rob Redhead, a veteran of the 1972 fight, said, "They want to be able to transfer workers at the drop of a hat to Innerleithen." Workers at the latter plant have only just secured an agreement to get a guaranteed four days’ weekly work in the first month of lean times, followed by a three-day week.

On the day following the strike Dawson issued "90-day notices" giving workers until January 1 to sign up to the company’s demands or be fired. The notices are "a gun at people’s heads," said Cook.

Union fighters are "encouraging workers not to sign up for the deal," said Redhead, speaking after an October 5 meeting attended by 90 workers. "The mood’s really militant now," he added. "We’ve had enough."

The meeting discussed plans for a further one-day strike on October 23, a march through the town involving workers from other mills, and a ballot to specifically reject the "harmonization" plans that give the go-ahead for further actions. "The only way to sort this out now is a longer strike," said Redhead.

Doreen Purves, who was an apprentice in 1972, recalled the strike of three decades ago. "The whole town turned out," she said. "Almost every mill won a four-day week." The proposed new agreement, she added, is "harder on women. Having to work in Innerleithen could mean another two hours’ travel a day," she noted. "For women with children that’s impossible, and a lot don’t have a car." Other workers pointed out how there is no direct bus service to Innerleithen.

Workers in this town are keenly watching the fight at Barrie Knitwear. Of the population of just under 16,000, Redhead explained, there are still up to 3,000 working in the textile industry. "If they break the four-day week here," he said, "others will do the same."

That week’s edition of the Hawick News reported rumors that Pringles, a textile company currently working only the guaranteed four days, is considering closing up shop in the town. Strikers at Barrie reported that GMB members at Lyle and Scotts mill have been on a longtime overtime ban over a pay claim. At Johnstone mill workers recently struck for a few days to secure a pay raise.

On the picket line strikers were unanimous in challenging the company’s claim that it had problems as a result of September 11. "Every year they come up with a different excuse as to why they have problems," said Renwick. "Before September 11 it was an earthquake in Japan!"

Whatever the bosses’ excuse, say workers, they have been on a drive to reorganize production at the company’s plants, at the expense of long-established conditions. Several months after the company’s January rejection of the union’s pay claim, 39 workers were laid off, including two union stewards who are challenging this through a tribunal. The company then floated an annualized hours proposal under which hours could vary throughout the year. Most workers saw through this as another way to chip away at the four-day agreement.

The proposal contained no guaranteed weekly wage. "It was all bone with no meat," commented Gary Cook. After workers rejected the annualization deal, then came the companies’ latest threats. But workers have mounted resistance that they hadn’t expected to face. "We’re not letting them get away with it," said Redhead.

Pete Willson is a meat worker and member of the Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers.  
 
 
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