Delighted! That's how British Leyland management must feel after their success in winning senior stewards and convenors to the 'worker participation' measures outlined in a document Employee particip ation in British Leyland Cars' The purpose of the document is clearly outlined in in a give-away paragraph *Terms of reference for committees at the Department/ Shop level shall be based on the principle set out in Appendix 2 which is that, while discussions of, and contributions to, the solution of wider problems is not precluded, the main task of each body in each level of the Employee Participation System is to improve the performance of the activity within which the employees who are represented in the body ar Speed-up In simple words, this means that the main task of these bodies is to help impose speed-up on the workforce and massive reductions in manning levels The principle referred to in Appendix 2 is even clearer: "to seek as far as possible to reach agreeшель ол acuon required wnile recognising that exec utive responsibility rests with the management.
If the senior stewards and conventors have stoop ed low in signing this agreement, they are forcing the workforce to go even lower. After the complete secrecy surrounding these negotiations, large sections of the new agreement have been pasted up below the notice board in Jaguar's Coventry plant. As a Jaguar worker said to Red Weekly: "If you have to get on your knees just to read the thing, what happens when wey actuauy setup unese jomt committees.
The first step along this road was taken at a special district meeting of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. meeting marked the beginning of a fight back by the left. A correct position was taken to reject both compulsory and voluntary redunA number of actions were also agreed, including support for the 26 November lobby of Parliament and a local stoppage and demonHowever, the Communist Party allowed the right wing to get off the hook on how and when such action would be organised. The heat must be put on the leadership of the CSEU to set up a Right to Work committee capable of linking workers in the engineering industry to those outside it such as the local authority workers, who have already mounted a vigorous campaign against the effects on the cuts on local expenditure.
Secondly, the right wing has hidden behind the excuse that events have taken them by surprise. The International Marxist Group in Coventry will be campaigning for all workers to carry out a thorough investigation of the affairs of their company by raising the demand that all books and advance plans of management be subject to inspection by the workforce. On this basis precise demands and tactics can be thrashed out to defend existing jols. COVENTRY IMG COVENTRY IMG PUBLIC MEETING 'DEFEND THE RIGHT TO WORK' Monday 24 November. 8.00pm Elastic Inn (opposite Theatres 1,2 & 3)
Speaker: Tim Hall (IMG Industrial