Talbot bosses put the boot in

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How management ting?

The foremen had been briefed that they had to change their role, be more forceful and stamp authority on the situation.

The company told them they didn't like the fact that the only liaison between management and the shop floor was the shop stewards.

They wanted to cut out the stewards and establish monthly meetings between foremen and the shop floor.

Was there anything in the pay deal which helped them?

The return to work agreement had stated that we would accept flexibility on mobility of labour. They used this to bypass the stewards and give instructions to individual workers.

The track was not running and they were telling people to do all sorts of things.

One young worker was told to clean office windows. He went over there and because the staff were taking the piss out of him he refused to do the work.

Are the stewards accepting this sort of thing?

Yes. But the company wanted to suspend him and this was going a bit too far even for the stewards who were going along with management on flexibility. A Joint Shop Stewards Meeting was held and the militant stewards argued that the company was using the return to work agreement to bypass the procedure laid down in the Plant Agreement.

We said that if the company suspended him we wanted a mass meeting on the company's refusal to deal with us.

What was the response of the convenors to this?

They weren't there. The Deputy Convenors left the meeting and told management what we thought. They backed down on the suspension.

They also called the foremen together and told them they had to inform stewards as to what was happening. But you've still got foremen attempting to wield the big stick.

Part of the return to work deal was discussion around a bonus scheme. What is happening to this?

In the document it says that an independent working party would be set up.

The convenors have insisted that the negotiations should go through the Plant Negotiating Committee. They've been talking to management for three weeks.

Last Thursday they called the first official stewards meeting to give a report back.

What are the proposals?

During the dispute a nd at end of it a total of about UNION DUES Socialist Press interviews a shop steward who is a supporter of the Ryton Action Group on the situa tion in Talbot after the defeat of the pay strikes.

240 left the plant. But then the ending of the night shift cut out about 90 to 100 jobs.

Management have taken on about 90 in the last three weeks. This leaves us about 40 short of the previous levels.

They say if we reached 110% effort without any extra workers being taken on then we might get an £8.35 bonus-but even this is not guaranteed. What have the Convenors argued for?

They said that they hadn't had time to put our case-they spent three weeks just listening to management. They just read out the proposals. We did not even have a copy so no decision was taken.

Since then management have held a meeting of shop stewards to urge us to accept the proposals.

They pushed the 'viability' argument and talked about the threat from imported cars. That's quite a joke seeing as Talbot is responsible for importing large numbers of cars from their European plants. They ended up their talk by inviting all the "gentlemen" to join them at the bar.

How would you sum the situation?

Management are going all out to impose speed-ups and the foremen are on the offensive.

Everyday senior management stand on the gates to stop people going home early. On Wednesday they suspended the Chairman of the JSSC for a day for leaving early. This apparently didn't even merit a JSSC meeting.

What can be done about it?

The guys on the shop floor are not as demoralised as the management might think they are. They won't take the things management want out of them.

The situation is much the same at Stoke and the Ryton Action Committee (which was set up during the "shoddy work" strike at Ryton) is confident that a joint struggle can be established across both plants.

The return to work, agreement should be thrown out and the way opened up for a new offensive on wages.