Only nine shop stewards opposed the acceptance of the Chrysler deal by the combine committee on Saturday 3 January. This agreement was a foregone conclusion after the mass meetings that had been held in Coventry the previous week and the meeting of stewards at the Linwood plant.
Only a meeting of the 700 white-collar ASTMS workers in Coventry rejected the deal. The pattern at the rest of the mass meetings in Coventry was the same. All were preceded by stewards meetings which were split down the middle on whether to accept the deal or not. All finally carried the proposal to accept.
Ryton
At the Ryton mass meeting on 30 December, workers heard their plant leadership doing their utmost to persuade the membership to take no action. Frank McCarney, AUEW convenor at Ryton attacked the idea of an occupanon in a specen widely publicised by the media. He said: "If you sit in or occupy the plant wial do we do next: we are living in cloud cuckoo land if we think we can run the Ryton plant.
The Ryton workers refused to allow their shop stewards to decide whether or not to accept the deal without holding a further meeting of the workforce. Workers shouted, 'You must be joking', in response to this request from Pat Molloy. Afterwards Red Weekly spoke to some of the hecklers. They asked us not to print their names otherwise they would be the first out of the gate.
What's the reason for this turn-around hy the stewards?
meeting uncy rcany put tne rigntener: on them. Last week there were 3-4000 cars in the plant. Everybody wanted a sit-in last week, the stewards included. Now they are just looking for some little thing to save their faces.
What do you think of the Linwood compensation?
I think it's right. Chrysler are the biggest fly-boy company out. There's no security with them in control. That's aso me reason why ev treated inwood the best in this deal. At Linwood they were really prepared to have a go and put up a show at the start. But I'm not sure what they will do now.
What about the future -meetings they have got to call now?
These meetings are so badly publicisca tnal not many people turn up. so I'm not hopeful. I think we will be sold out.
The figure that was given last week was unar by me end oriuv inere would be 800 left at Ryton - that's manual workers. Inere are 400 ollice workers there now and there would be 270 left of them. It's just a way of phasing Ryton out. Ryton is finished. In two vears there won't be any Chrysler in Coventry.
At the subsequent mass meeting only three days later, the stewards recommended acceptance while admitting that they had gained nothing from negotiations with the Consal.
Stoke
Shouts of 'Rubbish' and 'You've sold us down the river again' also greeted the Stoke convenors when they put the recommendation to accept the deal in principle. After the recommendation was passed, Red Weekly spoke to Gerry Jones, a steward at the plant.
When Duncan Simpson says there is a pistol pointed at your heads and you nave no aternative, do vou agree!
Of course there is an alternative. There was the Whitley document taken down by the convenors when tney saw Varley. It tabled out in detail the amount of money that would be necacd to keep us ail in jobs, and in ine long term te meant nationalsation. Idon tagree with everything it said, but at least it was an alternative.
themselves from it. And it wasn't even - me mass Gerry Jones discussed at the joint shop stewards commitice the workers report has been treated as an academic exercise - somemang to be read for to mmutes at nignt. not as the basis for a fight.
The convenors are not prepared to tell the truth. There is an alternative, and one of the reasons we don't hear it is because of the lack of democracy at these meetings.
the convenors have presented?
Their alternatives have been work-sharing, voluntary redundancies and natural wastage. This is no alternative. Fifty per cent of this plant has to go, and 75 per cent of Ryton.
cut down manning levels and jack up productivity. They are doing every thing they want to do at British Leyland. If they get away with it here, they will get away with it at British Leyland.
What about the future?
This meeting is a big blow. They got it through today's stewards meeting on the basis of it being a pablic relation: exercise for Chrysler and the Governbeen accepted in principle, they will use LaKe action. I am nor too despondene though. The fight is still on. The convenors have now dissociated What do you think of the policies that uses for resources.
This Government is using Chrysler to Robinson.