Workers at the Dessian Products factory in Apollo Road have been on strike since 19 May. The strike began over the sacking of Paddy McCloskey, one of the two T&GWU shop stewards in the plant, Peter Hadden reports.

Paddy was sacked for "refusing to carry out duties". In fact he was doing three jobs at the time! The real reason was to deal a blow at the union by victimising a shop steward. It is no coincidence that the sacking took place just as pay negotiations were opening.

Dessian are a low wage company and the management want to keep it that way. The starting rate is the minimum wage. This can rise over five years to a miserly £6.50 per hour! This from a leading and highly profitable manufacturer of PVC doors and windows which has made huge profits over the years. Last year they made £3 million profit.

Conditions in the factory are terrible. Corners are regularly cut on health and safety. The latest move of the Big Brother management has been to install CCT cameras all over the shop floor to monitor every move, including visits to the toilet.

Dessian is an anti trade union company. They were only finally forced to recognise a union four years ago when a majority of the shop floor workers joined the T&GWU. Since then they have done everything possible to prevent the union from operating effectively. There are no proper negotiating procedures.

Dessian's response to the strike has been to try to threaten and intimidate the workforce back to work. They have refused point blank to negotiate. Instead they have sent out letters threatening substantial redundancies.

Their threats have had no effect. Despite using Agency staff and shifting office workers to production jobs (with no regard for the health and safety implications of allowing an untrained workers to operate cutting machinery) production has ground to a halt. Other workers should stand behind the Dessian workers to ensure that this low wage, anti union company is defeated.

Messages of support and donations should be sent to Stephen Magee, 31 Ava Crescent, Belfast BT7 3DU. Cheques should be made payable to "Dessian Fund".

The month of June will close with over 500 NIPSA members on selective strike action including the Office of Industrial Tribunals, Agriculture grants and subsidies, the Pensions centre and eight MOT centers. The effect of the last group alone has led to 40,000 tests cancelled.

The mood on all the picket lines has been good. The MOT strikers met to discuss how long they would stay out and confirmed they would stay out indefinitely. This group as with other selective strikers have come under veiled threats of privatisation so their stance is fully appreciated by NIPSA members.

The support among workers and the public is also strong. The media continue to run stories attacking elements of the selective action and callers to the stations continue to say the action is justified.

While the selective action is undoubtedly having an effect is it going to win the dispute? The selective action means the strikers are paid full strike pay which covers their lost wages. This has an enormous cost and cannot go on indefinitely. It also isolates the majority of members who feel the dispute has passed them by.

Most importantly on its own it won't win. As a tactic and part of escalating strike action selective action can be very important. On its own it drags out a dispute which management can then endure. Rather than bring the dispute to a short, sharp conclusion it prolongs the pain and wears down those wanting to fight.

So is the dispute winnable? We can't rule out some sort of fudged deal being offered, even around the 2004 pay claim although this is unlikely. The answer is to escalate the action to an indefinite strike by the whole membership. To achieve this, the campaign must now be invigorated with one or two protest strikes by the whole membership to rebuild the mood and prepare for all out action.

NIPSA members have had no cost of living rise for 2003. 2004 promises exactly the same and will be repeated in subsequent years. The future of Civil Service pay is at stake and NIPSA's Civil Service Executive must adopt the strategy that will win the dispute.