At Cowley, where 11,000 workers have been laid off and Maxi and Marina production stopped, British little resistance to their plan to cut the workforce. This plan is the result of the drastic fall in the sales of Cowley's main model, the Marina, combined with the drive for speed-up which has been in top gear for the last year.
In March an annual wage rise, well below the social contract guidelines, was accepted at Cowley. Moves towards a fight were sabotaged by the local and national trade union bureaucrats. The district officials used the company's threat of withholding back payment to get the Body Plant workers to accept the dea.
In the Assembly Plant, the 'moderate' Reg Parsons-sabotaged overtime ban car bosses think they have the measure is to explain this, and prepare to fight the coming redundancies with a trade union plan for sharing the available work with no loss of pay. This should include the nationalisation of the industry under the control of the workers-not just to guarantee jobs, wages and conditions, but to ensure that the output of the existing plants is directed to serving the needs of the working class. senior steward Reg Parsons, who was elected in the wake of the victimisation of Alan Thornett, sabotaged an overtime ban decided on by a mass Leyland management are meeting with meeting. The ban was meant to use the launch date of Leyland's new model, the *18/22 series", as a bargaining lever.
STOCKPİLES
As soon as it was clear that there would be no fight on the wage reviews. Leyland announced stockpiles of about six months sales of the Marina. After a week's lay-off at Easter, Marina workers returned to a four-day week. This followed months of public denials by BL were spurred by this to elect a committee to investigate Leyland's statements, realising that the company's monopoly of information, protected by commercial secrecy, was an important weapon in the employer's hands. opening of the company's books to trade union inspection, and resolved to use all to comply. tant preparatory move towards fighting redundancy by the working out of a trade union plan, in light of the information disclosed, for work-sharing with no loss of pay.
But the only serious opposition to short-time has come from the 'indirect' (non-track) workers in the Body Plant. laid-off, the section operated a 'one out tion on all models for one day per week. But despite the unity shown within the section this fight did not provide a basis for uniting the workforce as a whole. The action has now been called off.
More than 25,000 car workers in the Midlanas are idte today as a result of three Coventry disputes:
at Cowley and Longbridge are laid off as a result of the Dunlop dispute; -all Massey-Ferguson tractor production demanding a 'substantial' wage increase; -2,000 Dunlop manual workers are laid off as a result of the clerical workers' StrIKE -4,000 Chrysler workers at the Coventry engine plant are also striking for a 'substanthat they had any excess stocks. Stewards was punched. possible trade union channels to collect the information required if the company failed This was potentially an impor When indirect workers on the Marina were -all out policy, which shut down producWORK ONUS -a total of 18,000 British Leyland workers has been halted by a strike of 4,500 workers The offer of voluntary redundanciesLeyland are calling for 1600 in the Body and Assembly plants-has been taken both by older workers eager to escape a lifetime of slavery, and others glad of a chance to change to less soul-destroying work.
But unemployment in tne oxrora arca while still below the national average, has hit a 30-year peak. The majority of workers at the factory now face indefinite short-time working even after the loss of over 2,000 jobs. Car sales are still declining and further cuts in Marina production are already planned. On the tracks producing the new "18/22 series' workers have noticed cars bearing the company's code joke. for unallocated vehicles, built for stock rather than order-only six weeks after it Many Leyland workers have been led to believe that Leyland's acceptance of the Ryder Report rules out compulsory redundancies. But no such guarantees exist-only the fears of both BL and Ryder of a militant response to sackings