On 2 October workers at the CAV factory in Fazakerley, Liverpool, received a statement from management informing them that production was to be discontinued and that the factory was to be closed by the end of April 1973. This step was to be taken, so management claimed, due to the inability of the factory to maintain supplies to overseas customers, and because of a sharp reduction in demand for their products at home.
Although they had stated in black-and-white that the factory would stay open until April 1973, all outstanding orders were cancelled and management started persuading key production workers to leave immediateiy by offering them redundancy pay plus & weeks pay in lieu of notice. This was obviously an attempt to split the work-force, as the offer was made two days after a mass meeting of shop-floor workers had unanimously rejected all redundancies and agreed to occupy the factory at a moment's notice. As a few of the key workers had accepted the management's offer, mass meetings were called to explain what the company was up to, and, on the 9th shop-floor workers occupied the plant.
On 16 October, the clerical workers also joined in the occupation, in spite of management's offer to pay them full salary up until April 1973 (which was later changed to full salary "for the time being"). The men and women in the factory have repeatedly said that they are prepared to negotiate with management. to use their own words. "The door of negotiations is wide open to the company. We will negotiate any time, anywhere, but not in terms of redundancy." Since the firm declared the 1200 redundancies they have managed to find 13 new jobs - none of which is in Merseyside and one is as far away as France!! The CAV workers have nowstepped up the struggle by closing down the Lucas Industrial Equipment factory. This they did by preventing the flow of materials in or out of the LIE factory, which is on the same site. This blockade was immediately followed by the withdrawal of transport facilities to the other three Lucas factories in the Liverpool area.
A FIGHT FOR THE WHOLE WORKING CLASS O uite clearly, the proposed closure of CA V Fazakerley is based on rationalisation plans that are geared to entry into the Common Market. In the company statement issued in April 1970 it was announced that £13 m was to be spent on developing the diesel business at home (that is, in the South-East) and abroad - production at Condiesel in Barcelona, Spain, was to be increased by 30 per cent. Since that statement, production has gradually been shifted from the Fazakerley plant to the plants in the South-East and to the Spanish subsidiary.
The real significance of the CAV occupation for the British labour movement is that it is just one of the first of what will be a long series of such struggles in the near future. CAV is not being shut down becuase the company is going out of business or cutting back on its operations: on the contrary Lucas' is booming and can be expected to expandvery rapidly with British entry to the Common Market. CAV is being shut down as part of the process of rationalizing and reorganizing British business so that it can take the best advantage of, and make the most profits from, the new possibilities of European trade.
This process of rationalization means that more and more firms will be moving to those areas that are best located for exporting to the continent - the South-East and the East coast - and away from regions where working-class militancy has in the past been able to win wages and working conditions better than the national average. However even in areas which do benefit from a common market "boom" the picture will be far from rosy - for there the employers will be eager to guarantee their profits by using the most modern automated production methods and paying the lowest wages practical. Certainly the number of jobs wiped out by rationalization will be considerably more than the number created through any growth in production that comes with entry to the Common Market. The issue in this coming fight will be: who pays for the crisis of British capitalism? Entry into the Common Market is one devire by which the employing class hopes to solve its economic problems - but the price will have to be paid by the workin g-class through redundancies, reorganization of work, speed-ups, etc. The fight at CAV is one of the first attempts by the British working-class to prevent the ruling class from dumping the burden of their problems onto the backs of the working-class. As such it is a fight that is of direct concern to every member of the working-class, whose own future is being fought out at CAV's today. CAV work-