Leyland Bosses Tgwu Cowley Witch-hunt

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Thornett at the TGWU conferenee arguing against wage December.

• Since then Thornett and the other eight have been constantly witch-hunted by internal TGWU inquiries and threatened with expulsion from the union or a life ban on holding office in the union.

Allegations

The new dossier consists of three lengthy letters from the Cowley Plant Director -W.D. North-to TGWU District Secretary David Buckle containing a series of allegations against Alan Thornett and detailing minute by minute accounts of disputes on his section.

". It had a covering letter from Pat Lowry, British Leyland Director of Personnel and , Administration, (and one of the few top BL executives to survive the Edwardes clear-out).

All of North's letters were sent to Buckle between the October 20, 1977 decision by Buckle to proceed with TGWU disciplinary hearings and the Regional Committee disciplinary hearing on February 27/28 1978.

All evidence points to the letters being sent by arrangement with Buckle, since despite the fact that they contain serious allegations against Alan Thornett, Buckle concealed their existence until the company produced them in evidence months later.

Weapon

The obvious purpose of the dossier was to place a weapon in the hands of both TGWU officials and Leyland management in the event of a strike, either in defence of Thornett against TGWU disciplinary action or in support of the demand that he be recognised in his elected position.

As the officials have begun to find themselves in increasing difficulty over the disciplinary hearings and as time has gone by, they have been unable to prevent the letters coming to light.

Most revealing is the first paragraph of Lowry's letter in which he says that his understanding of the settlement in 1974 (when Thornett was victimised and defended by his section) was that the TGWU:

was no longer questioning that Mr Thornett would not under any circumstances be granted facilities to act as a senior steward, deputy senior steward...

If this is true it means that Thornett has remained victimised for the past four years by agreement with TGWU! -Only Moss Evans, now General Secretary, but the negotiator at that meeting -can testify to the truth or otherwise of that statement.

Lowry goes on to quote strike figures and to draw the conclusion that:

"Extreme line"

"Mr Thornett holds the same ideals now as he did in 1974 . . . encouraging workers to take an extreme line, e.g. "reject speed-up" "prepare to occupy the plant", "reject the wage Lowry concludes by pointing to North's letters to lend support to the management decision to stand firm against recognition of Thornett as deputy convenor!

North's dossier deals mainly with disputes on Alan Thornett's transport drivers' section.

The disputes arose from the decision of the convenor at that time, right winger Reg Parsons, to exclude Thornett from shop stewards meetings and later centred on defending Thornett against the TGWU disciplinary hearings.

Serious nature

North concludes his dossier with a revealing paragraph which again points clearly to collusion with the officials.

"Once again 1 must emphasise the serious nature of this matter and I trust that you will investigate the whole issue on an urgent basis and inform. us of your organsation's intent to enforce discipline into your organisation on this plant"

The dossier has brought a quick reaction from the 170 Lowry TGWU stewards on the Assembly Plant:

They voted with only 4 against to demand that national official Grenville Hawley-to whom Lowry's letter is addressed-attend a meeting of the stewards to answer questions on Alan Thornett's recognition. Buckle-concealed letters They also decided to call a mass meeting of the plant and recommend that the meeting demands the TGWU bureaucracy drop the charges against the Cowley 9 in order to create new conditions for a fresh approach to management at General Secretary level, to Evans-what are the facts? demand Thornett convenor.

Cowley demanding crisy of demanding Thornett while at themselves control. ecognition of as deputy stewards are that the hypounion officials that Alan be recognised the same time recommending TGWU Regional Secretary Mathers, lobbied by . Thornett's section. that he be expelled from the union be brought to an end.

Details of the Cowley 9 Defence Campaign from the Organising Committee, c/o 23, Overmead Green, Blackbird Leys; Oxford.