B-now Fight No-strike Clauses

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review. the point of production.

Since 1974 there have When BL stops, the effects been three years of "partic- quickly spread outwards ipation" which successfully through the component softened up the shop stew- suppliers to the engineerards movement and sucked ing industry and beyond. defeat for BL workers on the always beer It was also cicar inat a ine past DL WUIRCIS lIdYE constant victin batons successfully was victimised by BL in MaTIz CintAATn aIl IO I80W inannın snurnw io neH collaboration with manage- would quickly come to a em so smo tho mauennes into r 1f af Midtrado induetry 4% would be a heavy blow split and d ivided by the 1974 and remain non-recogto every group of workers in leaders at the top. nised as a senior steward to Then, after being weak- .BL workers also saw the public and private sector Now for ened by that and by waves Edwardes and his hard line. fabing a struggle over 4% since BL forc of voluntary redundancy the management in a state of shop stewards' "movement panic. The day before, the was faced with Edwardes' diker teanee maas OCCUPaThey hed faced a full sovereu sordes Into PaCa 9, "aerurthino iLL Sn Itaato aad nam *.. intervention" ended up with But the fact that somethingfrom different BL factories to get the £20 frantic meetings between the positive could come out of The government was detract from the magnitude caught in the worst possible of the betrayal carried out situation. Which ever way by the top leadership. they moved seemed to lead shop floor what claim shoul If they carried. out the be put in and received the threat they had made, answer £ 20 across the board. clearly which wages.

To well whilst on an would biggest 1920s. wage offers. THE eyes of the working class were on the BL strike two weeks ago. Coming at a crucial stage in the life of the Tory government-when Thatcher needed to ram home her 4% wage norm, push forward her anti-union offensive and establish her authority to govern for the second half of her term of office-the strike was destined to be a watershed for the trade union movement in Britain.

Edwardes' threat to sack all manual workers and liquidate the entire corporation made it an issue went far beyond victimise 58.000 organised workers on an official strike annual wage review have inflicted the defeat for the trade movement since the that a toriou felt thorou Coming at a time when there is already a concerted, coordinated and well financed war being carried out against the trade union movement, a victory for Edwardes would be another victory for the style of management of which a big victory government. I ened their han And al watched the ( 24 hours lal under no illus confidence to offensive.

But in 1 effect has bee ent. BL 1 returned to w they have again and t settlement ha on them.

But far fre work defeats returned to militant. Th particular fact to be taken i explain this.

The strike ever national 4L.. an as end bargaining th BLy Workers:

action.

Iney un from the suc of the strike from the w plants-with of a couple c for the Tory t has strengthid on the 4%. nyone who Queen's Speech ter should be ion. It has lent the anti-union BL itself the in rather differworkers have roik angry that been betrayed hat the 3.8% is been foisted idence om returning to ed. they have work more ere are some tors which need into account to = was the firststrike in BL. In havo the first time this day. ed in corporate iree years ago. have seen. Ya: strong m confidence cess and power which was total ord go in all the exception f isolated foun'land dries.

They were strengthened by the militancy and scale of the picketing-which reflected, and probably partly arose out of the experience of the stéel strike last year.

There were 2,000 pickets on the gates at Cowley and almost as many at Longbridge. The Daily Telegraph described how "for three hours in Cowley the pickets controlled the streets.' It was an uplifting experience and in sharp contrast to recent history in BL where the workforce has been under constant attack and has always been denied the onnortunity of a united response to management.

In 1974 Jack Jones and Hugh Scanion gave an undertaking to BL management to keep production going at all costs and stamp out strikes. Since then, there have been "intimiantinme Collaboration Derek Rotinson was VI. timised in 1979 and is out of the industry. And six stewards were victimised at Longbridge last year, accused of leading a riot following the sell-out of last year's wage ment. halt.

hard tine inan garieet. scale attack on from jobs to wages and conditions of work.

At the same time every wage review for the past 3 years has been sold out before any action could get off the ground-despite the labour force voting on each occasion for strike action.

The last three sell-outs caused widespread demoral¡sation. "Workers saw the twisting and turing and devious moves at the top of the unions but never saw their own strength.

The difference this time was that the strike started, which is gomething quite different.

Workers saw not only their own strength but also that many of the old right wing arguments about the ineffectiveness of a BL strike in today's conditions were rubbish.

The most important capitalism is the point of uning production. Bl. is

King

plants and moved out all confidential files.

They took them to a "secret' destination which turned out to be the Gaydon experimental division where they planned to try to administer BL as a 'management in exile"!

Liquidate

In each plant everything was locked and keys taken away. Tax discs were taken off all vehicles.

It was obvious to all that Thatcher was panicking as well. A policy of "nonministers and the unions.

to their resignation.

through Edwardes, to liquidate BL in the event of a strike it would lead to an enormous political crisis with Midlands industry devastated. This would lead to industrial action, probably more occupations, and certainly riots on the streets.

Compensate

If on the other hand they conceded to BL workers, the 4% policy would stashed. That only hope Swas Che treachery of the *trade union leaders But after these experiences the return to work soon turned into militant action.

In Cowley, the Honda Acclaim track struck within hours of the return to work when a car body fell out of a hoist and management gave them 15 minutes to get the track running or be sent home.

All assembly workers at Longbridze struck two days later when management cut relief times to compensate for the 39 hour week and are still out.

the pay strike does not All unions adopted the claim and the JNC put it to management. On receiving the reply 3.8% they recommended an all-out strike from November 1.

They called a senior stewards meeting foI October 19 and a series of mass meetings for Octobei 16.

On the day before the mass meetings Edwardes issued his infamous setter threatening to sad anyone no went be liquidate any plant effected Demite the Tesult was a massive 8-1 vote for all-out strike action.

The resolution put to all the mass meetings was clear -demanding money on the basic rate-no juggling with the bonus-which had been the basis of last year's sellout.

Manoeuvres

"In the absence of a substantial improvement in the amount of money offered on the grade rate-paid equally to each grade-we recommend industrial action to commence on 1 November 1981 to the Senior Stewards and members."

After the vote all unions except the EETPU made the strike official in advance. Even Terry Duffy was making public statements attacking BL management. who he said had lost its. "obest friend"

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