Leyland Workers Prepare to Fight Back

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Leyland. more bureaucratic lines than AFTER THE STEEL AND BL STRIKES11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Credentials £1 Write to G. Webster, 169, Barclay Road., Warley Mass meeting at Cowley Assembly Plant An important step forward was taken last Saturday in the struggle to build an alternative leadership to the Stalinists and social democrats in British A conference called in Birmingham by the Leyland Action Committee attracted militants from five important plants-Cowley Assembly plant, Cowley Body plant, Rover Solihull, Longbridge and Jaguar, Browns Lane.

Although the confernece of 36 was smaller than the organisers had anticipated it was able to address itself concretely to the appalling crisis of leadership BL, which has helped turn the corporati ground for general • strat whole of the Britain.

In into a testing the employers' gy. against the working class in Action proposals The conference addressed itself to a series of action proposals around which the struggle for alternative leadership in the corporation can be focussed at this stage.

Central to this over the next few months is the 1980/81 wage review, around which there are serious problems to be confronted.

Since the call earlier this year by the BL National Joint Negotiating Committee for an official strike from April against Edwardes' imposition of the 5% and 92 pages of strings, moves have been made by the union bureaucracy to supercede even this servile body.

The JNC is to be "reconstituted", presumably along even before and a new body of General Secretaries and National Officers has been set up above the JNC and given ultimat authority within BL-including the right to sign agreements over the heads of the 90,000 workers in BL Cars!

In fact they have already signed such an agreement. . They secret May 8 and met signed an agreement with management giving management complete control of grading appeals.

To do so, the officials overrode objections from both the JNC and the convenors' conference. The agreement is now being operated by management.

The conference approached this major tightening of the bureaucratic grip by fully supporting the initiative taken a few days earlier by the shop stewards committee at the Cowley Assembly Plant.

Delegate conference They have called for a delegate conference of BL workers to be set up as the highest body within BL-to which an elected JNC would be answerable.

The conference decided to campaign for a claim based on a basic rate for production workers of £120 per week and pro rata to other grades, a cost of living clause offsetting the full effect of inflation; a 35 hour week, the abolition of the 92 page document and the restoration of all agreements.

The resolution adopted by the conference stressed the importance of strike action on the claim immediately the review date is reached on 1 November.

The conference also addressed itself to the current situation in the plants, calling for a policy of no recognition of the 92 page document and the organisation of action against it.

It called for support for the growing number of strikes on opening the books of BL, occupation against closures and work sharing on full pay in place of redundancies, the conference went on to take a stand in opposition to any call for "There was a report from the convenor of the Adwest plant in Reading-a BL supplier-whose workforce is now in the sixth week of strike action against victimisation.

And there were fraternal greetings from the Ford Workers Group.

At a point where the Tory/ Edwardes offensive has workers in many industries confused as to the way forward, this qualitative conference marks a vital step towards an organised fight back.

NEW LEADERS NEEDED! .

July at Digbeth Birmingham West Midlands

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Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement CONFERENCE