The threat this week by Chrysler U,K. to sack 8,000 workers if the strike by 156 electricians at Coventry does not end, is the climax to the bot autumn in the car industry brought about by the Tory pay laws.
Under the pressure of pay restraint, car workers are sick of lay-offs and loss of wages.
Most groups of car workers have an agreement whereby lay-off money is paid in the case of external disputes, Managements therefore provoke internal disputes so as to avoid paying.
The Vauxhall workers on Merseyside have replied to provocations by demanding 70% layoff pay in disputes involving other unions in the the electriciuns their transfer to staff status. combine, Future lay-offs will be met with occupation of the plant, say the stewards.
Occupation is precisely what happened at Fords. Although the EPTU is prepared to ascept tbe last week, A black worker was sacked after hitting a foreman, 250 men in his section stopped work, and 4,000 body plant men faced lay-off, Immediately a militant group of 600 workers stormed the plant, closing it down and demanding a guaranteed weekly sage irrespec. tive of the couse of stoppage.
This was the result of a decision by Shop Stewards to resist the next lay-off, following a victory two weeks carlier, when a night-shiét had blockaded the management offices. They forced the payment, for the first time ever, of a day's pay for a lay-off caused by an internal dispute.
The Chrysles dispute has different origins, but EPTU leaders and changed the politics of the the Pay Laws have turned it into a national set- dispule. piece battle, with the reputations of Jones and Scanlon as left trade union leaders a step nearer the prave.
The Chrysler management agreed last year that electricians at Coventry should be transferred to Staff status, which would mean an extra C250 a year. The Freeze prevented payment, and ciecincians are now demanding that the trans fer should take place this year, as part of the 1973 pay deal now being negotiated with Chrysler production workers, Under this the rise would be backdated to July Ist. But Chrysier are using the Pay Laws to refise They will pay the cloctricians the Phase 2 limit on their caming £190 a year-as part of a normal annual settlement, but will not transfer.
Ray Laws, the L60 would have to he paid at a later date, backdated to July 1 and would thus serve as a guide for the demands of the other Chrysler workers, currently in negotiation. The EPTU officials have claimed that it is not a strike against the Pay Board. Frank Chapple said at Blackpool: We will not take action against the Government if the Pay Board vetoes any "above norm rises" that Chryster concede? It was not a dispute with the Government, but an attempt to get Chrysler to honour a longstanding agrcement. Inilisily misled by their leaders into believing that the £250 war within the legal maximum, the electricians have not strongly enough challenged this approach of the TRADE UNION PRINCIPLES Other groups of car industry workers have faced a similar stuation, with companies ratting on deals under cover of the Pay Board. At Dunlop, the 3,300 maintenance engineers have been on strike, trying to get the company to agree that the C1.95 stopped by the Pay Board should he paid when the law allows, and that it be backdated to April 1973. One steward said: "It is better to have a direct dispute with the company, because if it is against the govern ment, then our people would say that we have no chance. Although few groups of workers will consciously meet the Pay Board bead on, Chappie was wrong to tell his members that they could win a nioral victory on their own; they need the support of other workers. At Coventry there was support, on the hasis of trade union principle, when Millwrights (one of whom was assaulted by strikebreakers during the shoddy work dispute refused to cross the EPTU picket lines, At Ryton and Stoke, engineers refused to work machines repaired by blacklogs and many T&G internal lorry drivers refused to cross the picket Unes. Finally, the 7,000 Linwood workers struck in solidarity with the clectricians. But there was not time to develop political support for a fight with the Pay Board, in the interests of all workers. The AUEW and T&G bureaucrats made sure that the workers were not given the necessary Lune, Under cover of Chapple's statements about not fighting the Pay Board, Jones ordered the internal lorry drivers to cross the picket lines. Under the agreement, only action off pay. Later, instructions were given to production workers to wark machines repaired by scab supervisors and electricians. Far from tuning the strike into a fight against the Pay Board, and building a political unity of the workers, Scanlon and Jones set about sabolaging even the most elementary trade union solidarity and principles.
TURN THE TIDE Only at Linwand did the production workers disobey the EC's instructions and continued to black the machines. After the temporary return to work at Linwood this week, Chrysler have made sacking threats, determaned to smash the electricians into sulmission, But it is not too late lot the workers to go on the counter-offensive, At British Leyland, Longbridge, 9,000 workers bave been striking in protest against the Pay Board's ruling that they can only be awarded 12.42 of a recent agreement. This fight should be linked to the fight at Chrysier.
While the bureaucrats are sharpening their knives with the management, the electricians' stewards should quickly gather all available -tores, capecially the British Leyland workers, For a drive aguinst the Pay Board. If the car. industry is running to a hall, the working class should tum the results of this widespread industrial action to lasting use turn it into a political instiative against the Pay Board even before the Tories get the chance to impose DAVE BAILEY Red Weekly 28 September 1973 Page 3
The revolutionary movement has a long history As the social crisis of capit: