New sackings at Alfred Herbert
Socialist Press1978 1978-07-12Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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If 700 sackings announced by machine tool manufacturers Alfred Herbert are successfully carried through, the workforce at the Edgwich plant in Coventry will have been halved since September of last year.
The • company was rescued by the government in 1975 amid great ballyhoo about the "benefits" of the National Enterprise Board.
Low levels of orders have been blamed by management, and with stagnation in the economy the demand for machine tools is bound to have decreased.
Incapable
However the union leadership at Herberts have shown themselves incapable of dealing with sackings on this scale.
Only last October 460 sackings were announced, and, after initial opposition, union leaders caved in.
The task facing Herbert workers is to fight for the opening of the company books and work-sharing on full pay.
They must resist the reactionary demand for import controls which is bound to be coming period.
The example of Herberts illustrates graphically the fraud of the NEB so beloved by left-fakers such as Wedgewood Benn.
After handing over millions to Herberts management, the NEB now goes along with the new round of sackings.
"An instrument for defending profits not workers"-the NEB sun med up in a nutshell. PHOTO: