Meriden Co-op Threatens Jobs

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existing inadequate standards of public health are now under attack. .

Yet for the real emancipation of working women from the drudgery of domestic labour and the oppression of the bourgeois family much more is necessary. Communal kitchens must be established. There must be full communal child care facilities. Modern technology must be applied to the elimination of household tasks. Above all , women must no longer be cheap labour, the first to be sacked, compelled to make do on a reduced income...... ......The struggle for the rights of working women poses the necessity to replace the present leaders of the working class movement by those prepared to maintain their interests. The Workers Socialist League is fighting to build such a leadership as a necessary step in the abolition of capitalism and its replacement by a planned socialist economy.

against work Britain.

The 350 workers at their Coventry plastic components plant have been on strike for two weeks demanding payment for the period that they were laid off because of the Stoke engine plant dispute.

This issue of lay-off pay is continuously arising in the motor industry because of the insecurity of earnings.

The reply of the Chrysler management to this important issue for the whole motor industry is to threaten a total shut down, Short-time working and possible redundancies face 1,200 motor cycle workers at the Birmingham Small Heath plant and 1,500 workers at the Wolverhampton plant of Norton Villiers Triumph.

This follows a history of crisis in the British motor cycle industry starting with the collapse of the Birmingham Small Arms group and the establishment of NVT in 1973.

Since then, NVT lost £8m and continues to lose £2m annually.

Affairs have been brought to a head by a drop of 60% on the American market for NVT 'super bike' exports. This is a reflection of the world wide capitalist slump where restoration of profitability demands massive speed-up, wage cuts and redundancies.

RIVAL But this situation has been complicated by the existence of a rival plant - the so-called 'workers co-operative' at Meriden.

One of NVT's first decisions was to close the unprofitable motor cycle plant at Meriden, which resulted in an 18 month battle to keep the plant going by forming a cooperative sponsored with £5m from the government.

The acceptance of this reformist scheme had an enormous effect at Meriden. The labour force was halved from 1,750 to 870, all demarcation was ended, wages were established at a flat rate of £50 a week -lower than the average wage in the area.

In other words the profitable restoration of Triumph at Meriden was entirely at the workers expease. In the first four months of its existence Triumph Meriden has doubled its productivity and now has reduced its labour force to 350!

SPEED

To restore profitability has meant that the workers co-op has been forced to replace workers by machinery, introduce speed-up, and enforce a massive cut in its wage bill.

NVT is contracted to sell the Meriden output for its first two years and considerable resentment is felt by workers in the Birmingham and Wolverhampton plants where the co-op is seen as a direct threat to their jobs.

In this context, where Deanis Poore, himself, the chairman of NVT is demanding that the government nationalise, a programme capable of defending all jobs. including the 350 at Meriden, Has to be fought for.

On this basis the books of the company should be opened and the demand for the nationalisation under workers management of the entire motor cycle industry without compensation, should be advanced. The demand has to be fought for in relation to the development of a planned economy under workers management. As part of this workers should demand. state finance and state contracts to maintain production.