Unions pull out BL 'participation'
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The BL Cars ad-hoc committee, the body which shaped and introduced so-called 'worker participation' into BL, has voted unanim-. ously to abandon the scheme.
At its meeting last week the Committee accepted a motion moved by Bob Fryer, convenor of the Cowley Assembly Plant: that six months notice of withdrawal from 'participation' be served on the Company.
The motion called for withdrawal from the scheme unless management agree to what amounted to a trade union veto over all company decisionsmutual agreement on all decisions at all levels.
The ad-hoc committee, which had not met for a long time, had been reconvened to try to revamp 'participation' and coax those plants such as Cowley Assembly who had previously withdrawn from the scheme to re-enter it.
Absent from last fateful meeting were Longbridge convenors Robinson (AUEW) ar Adams (TGWU).
Robinson had been'
the foremost advocate now doomed scheme.
The Birmingham District Committee of the TGWU has 'called on Regional officials to drop all charges against nine members at the Cowley Assembly Plant-the 'Cowley 9' The Committee made the call after hearing a report from its Regional Committee dele.
gate, who had revealed that no discussion on the nine had been taken at the Regional Committee's October meeting.
Among the Cowley 9 are the convenor and three deputy convenors at Leyland's Cowley Assembly Plant. They have faced penalties including possible expulsion from the union and a life ban on union office since kangaroo-court "inquiries" into trumped-up disciplinary charges began a year ago.
A campaign in defence of the 9 has attracted sponsorship and support from over 200 leading stewards, branch officers and prominent committee members of the union.
The Birmingham District's decision represents a major blow to the witch-hunters in the TGWU bureaucracy.
TGWU Branches and committees must continue to press for the dropping of the charges.
Midlands Regional Secretary Brian Mathers arriving for the opening of the Regional Inquiry into the Cowley 9 WE'VE GOT A FULL-SCALE MAY BATTLE PLAN DRAWN UP! JUNE JULY THIS IS ONLY THE START! OUR COMMITTOE GOING TO BE PUSHED AROUND-IF THIS ISN'T SETTLED BY NEXT NOVEMBER, THERE'LL BE SOME REAL FIREWORK week's he two Derek d Jack perhaps of the