Please circulate throughout the Labour Movement

Critchley Group on the Slide

The Critchley Group, which sacked 31 CWU members whose only "crime" was to defend their trade union rights , are showing clear signs of severe financial difficulties.

In just over a year, their share price has plummeted from £9.62 per share to just £5.95! Major shareholders in Critchley such as Schroders Investment Management, Lloyds TSB Group, Morgan Grenfell and General Accident must be deeply unhappy at seeing almost 40% wiped off the value of their investments in little more than 12 months. Critchley's John White and his fellow Executive Directors can expect their day of reckoning at the comapny's annual meeting.

Production difficulties continue at Critchley Labels in South Wales, scene of the sackings. The "replacement" workforce of semi skilled and unskilled staff seems unable to meet production targets and it can't be long before BT, Sony, Panasonic and other Critchley customers look to take their business elsewhere.

It's not just Critchley Labels in the mire. Critchley have just announced 50 redundancies at their non union factory in Stroud in Gloucestershire. This will result in more than half the workforce at the Stroud plant losing their jobs. The sackings at Stroud naturally caused alarm and gloom amongst the scab workforce in South Wales, but they were reassured when management told them that all 50 workers at Stroud were being sacked for "poor timekeeping"!!

Alan Harley
National Organiser
Communication Workers Union

15 May 1997

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The Critchley 31 and the Communication Workers Union ask for your help and support.

Messages of support should be sent to

Tony Young
Joint General Secretary
Communication Workers Union
Greystoke House
150 Brunswick Road
Ealing
London W5 1AW

or, E-mailed to the CWU at 101354.1171@compuserve.com.

E-Mail your protests to the Critchley management at critchleycomponents@dial.pipex.com or leave a message on the Critchley web site at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/hj72/index.htm for the UK, Europe and Asia.

Critchley's Website in the USA is at http://www.critchley.com.

Any donations would be welcome and should be made out to "CWU - Critchley Fighting Fund" and sent to the Union headquarters, address as above.

For other material relating this dispute and the CWU, please click on to:

Critchley Strikers - March and Rally, Cardiff, 1st November 1997

Critchley Strikers - Register Your Support Electronic Pickets Wanted (20 June 1977)

Critchley Group on the Slide by Alan Harley, May 1997

Support the Critchley 31 - background briefing by the CWU

Critchley Strikers Need Your Support - March and Rally in Nottingham, 14 May 1997

Cheers and Tears for the Critchley Strikers by Eddie Barrett, April 1997

Internet Support for Critchley Strikers, April, 1997

Striking Critchley Workers Sacked!2 March, 1997

Strike at Critchley as Union is Banned
CWU Home Page

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Their fight is ours, their victory will be yours.

Uploaded 15 May 1997