Ballot Conspiracy to Force Mass Sackings

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L•J ... UNIT VI O succa Vul H15 Hidis Ior course which will be very grim 12,000 redundancies.

This threat was backed up at 'workers participation' machinthe weekend with a full-scale ery they assisted BL manageAnd on Monday the Confed speed up production, force in itself used its own members' corporate pay bargaining and subscription money to take out close down the Triumph plant advertising space in every at Speke.

Never before have trade union leaders thrown such massive resources into a campaign to force their own members onto the dole queues as the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions in British Leyland.

Confed leaders are working hand in glove with BL boss Michael Edwardes to ensure the closure or part closure of 13 whole factories, and the loss of 25,000 jobs.

Riding roughshod

The extent of this collaboration goes beyond even the passive acceptance of closures by steel union leaders or the "reluctant acquiescence" of union bureaucrats to shipyard closures.

So anxious are Confed leaders to restore the profitability of BL at the expense of their own members that they are riding roughshod over the near-unanimous rejection of Edwardes' _proposals by ma conference of BL convenors.

And they have supported Edwardes to the hilt in his move to go over the heads of the convenors and organise a postal ballot on his plan in the midst of a colossal press campaign.

Confed leaders and Edwardes both hope that workers in the so-called 'safe" BL plants-denied any alternative policy by their union officials, and with no sign of active resistance in the threatened factories-will combine . to vote their fellow workers out of a job. •Of course the union leaders know full well that a 'yes' vote in the ballot carries far heavier implications than even the loss of 25,000 jobs. It means a frontal attack on those workers who stay on in BL:

The BL Board statement accompanying every ballot paper states clearly that:

"The Company cannot survive unless productiviîy is improved as a major priority. That depends on continuous production, fewer people and the use of proper industrial engineering standards. We are investing in modernisation of plants and we cannot afford out-dated attitudes which obstruct improvements in performance."

Abolish agreement

In other words a 'yes' vote will be taken as the go-ahead to impose a new common industrial engineering agreement which abolishes mutual agreement on manning levels and clears the way for all-out speedup on the tracks.

With all this at stake, every possible pressure has been brought to bear on BL workers to dragoon them into voting away their own jobs and working conditions.

Special nightshift

To ensure no concerted campaign could be mounted for a 'no' vote, printers at Nuffield Press were paid double rates for a special night shift to produce 165,000 ballot forms; and teams of workers were enlisted to mail out the forms within 24 hours of the BL Board's decision.

The ballot paper asks workers to vote 'Yes' or 'No' to the loaded question:

"Do you give your support to BL's recovery plan?"

And the accompanying statement threatens that:

"If you vote NO then you I! will set the Comnanv on a indeed for all of us."

press campaign. popular daily paper to argue for acceptance of Edwardes' jobslashing plan!

The propaganda task has been made easier by the complete political bankruptcy of BL convenors, and union officials of the TGWU and TASS, whose votes against the Edwardes plan have not been matched by any perspective for a fight to prevent the closures and sackings taking place.

Indeed the bulk of BL convenors have firmly supported Edwardes over the last two years.

Standing ovation

They gave him a standing ovation when he met them for the first time in January 1978 and challad nut his mlane far Through the reactionary ment slash back the workforce, Leyland workers