Gardners Win Partial Victor)
Socialist Press1980 1980-12-03Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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2,400 workers who had been occupying . the Gardners' diesel engine factory in Manchester for the past seven weeks voted last week to return to work on terms which they regard as a major victory in the fight against unemployment.
As a result of the militancy and determination of the occupation, management has withdrawn the 590 redundancy notices it had issued to workers - including those issued to convenor Tom Macafee and several shop stewards.
But in return for this cowcession; the unions have agreed to the loss of 300 jobs through voluntary redundancies and early retirement over the next three months.
And there is the likelihood of short-time working subsequently, under the Tories' shorttime working subsidies scheme.
The whole position will be reviewed next September.
It is not clear at this stage whether any concessions have been made on the wage claim which sparked off the company's initial threats to sack 700 workers and the notices to 590 workers.
But militancy and confidence among Gardners workers plainly remains high: there has already been a protest stoppage over bonus payments since the return to work.
However the fact remains that while the sackings have been minimised by the struggle and 275 workers have thereby won a reprieve, 300 jobs have still been lost at Gardners.
Even spokesmen for the occupation were heard to call for early retirement and voluntary redundancies as a solution to the dispute as they toured seeking support for the struggle. Such talk is dangerous and diversionary.
Fight redundancies
The Gardners experience has shown that it is possible to fight redundancies by factory occupation: but it has also emphasised the need for a political fight within each occupațion to develop the awareness of workers that every job must be defended.
Every job "sold" through voluntary redundancy or early retirement is a job lost to the whole working class.
The overwhelming support from the labour movementover £40,000 was raised in 7 weeks-is an indication that tens of thousands of workers are looking for precisely such a lead in the fight to defend jobs.
WO