BL workers face new stage of Edwardes plan

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BL's announcement of a new round of plant closures represents another challenge to the trade union movement over the defence of jobs.

The closures are an extension of the Edwardes plan first launched in September 1979.

They effectively mean the closure of five more plants and the axing of 5,000 more jobs as part of a strategy aimed at concentrating production in two main areas-Longbridge and Cowley.

The two key management decisions are the scrapping of the TR7 sports car and the transfer of the new SD1 Rover Saloon from Solihull to the Cowley Assembly Plant when it is launched in April 1982.

Time scale

This could lead to the closure of the modern SD1 Assembly Plant with a loss of 1,600 jobs and throw the future of the Speke body plant "into jeopardy which presses frames for the TR7.

Coventry Engines would be seriously affected and BL say they *are looking seriously" at the future of the plant. In addition the Service Division plant in Cardiff is to close.

Foundry capacity would also be cut back-resulting in the closure of the Wellingborough foundry this year and leaving a serious question mark over the No. 3 Foundry in Leeds.

Although Jaguar will remain open and receive a new model in 1983, the plant is earmarked for rationalisation and thousands of jobs are at risk.

The plan as a whole is carefully conceived. Completion in one year gives management exactly the kind of time scale they need to defuse opposition.

The pressure is immediately placed onto the individual worker. Management say lob losses will be achieved "as far as possible" by voluntary means.

Fait accompli

Where plants are to be closed the normal plant closure terms will apply "subject to there being cooperation in the orderly transfer of work, run down and closure"

Management will move quickly to present workers with a fait accompli. Already by September they plan to close the TR7 and achieve the first stage of the closure of the SD1 plant.

At the Cowley Assembly Plant management is laying plans for the expansion of STILL AVAILABL League pamphlet A POLICY FOR production in the factory. Compulsory redundancies which looked a certainty when the Maxi ceases production in June now seem unlikely and even the present VR scheme may cease.

The Triumph Acclaim (Honda) is to be launched in October and will be followed rapidly by the new face lift hatchback Princess ahd, they hope, the new Rover.

Closure

In 1983 the first model of the LC10 range will be launched in the Cowley Assembly South Works.

But workers at Cowley who may feel safer as a result of these moves should not be deluded. Their future cannot be separated from the effects of the Edwardes and Thatcher policies on the corporation as a whole.

They should remember that the original 'Edwardes Plan" of September 1978 yet not a single initiative has emerged from them.

Of course there have been some angry words: Brian Mathers, the Midlands Regional Secretary of the GWU, has said the decision is "a scandal" . Grenville Hawley, national automotive secretary of the TGWU has said it is "diabolical"

At the same time Hawley cancelled a convenors' conference scheduled for Monday of this week, to discuss •management's proposed new procedure agreement.

The meeting would inevitably have discussed the new round of plant closures.

Their attitude is not surprising. Although the TGWU at first objected, the unions organised at that time through the CSEU) actually supported the closure of 13 plants under the original Edwardes plan. They argued that it was necessary in order to make BL viable.

And when Edwardes balloted the workforce on his so-called "survival plan" the Confed enclosed a letter urging a • yes vote for Edwardes.

That vote was a big defeat for the BL workforce. Edwardes sacked Derek Robinson on the basis of it and has used it as his authority ever since.

Those events make today's fight harder.

Never challenged

But Edwardes' authority has never been challenged. In each confrontation he has got away scot free-because of the betrayals of the officials and in many cases the convenors as well.

A fight must begin now. Shop stewards at the Cowley Assembly Plant have pledged not to accept the SD1 if the closure is resisted at Solihull.

14500 SMASH TI EDWARDE PLAN But the key lies in the threatened plants themselves. Supporting action can only be effective if they resist.

A mass meeting at Rovers last Wednesday carried a resolution from the stewards committee pledging. resistance to the closure by all means possible.

But in reality the resolution doesn't mean very much. Time is the crucial factor.

Although the final closure may be 11 months away, management will move quickly to start negotiations on severance pay and undermine the development of any resistance.

Action has to be taken now. But ways have to be found to give confidence to workers facing that struggle.

Edwardes argues that the plants are "not viable" • He is already pointing to losses of £266 million in BL's car operations, to the recession and to the strength of the pound as reasons for the closures.

Workers must immediately be given an answer to these questions. Who says that those were the losses in the car side?

Is it not that BL paid £100 million to the banks in the interest on the so-called government "hand-outs" and that they spent a further £100 million on redundancies and closures?

Edwardes has just had a 52% pay increase giving him £100,000 a year-open the books of BL!

Workers have the right to a secure job! Why should they be thrown on the scrap heap because of the crisis of a system they can't control and because of the policies of a reactionary government and management?

The only effeçtive action is the occupation of th threatened plants immediati ly and the call for a strik in support in the rest of th combine.

To achieve this th threatened plants must as together. A meeting of cor venors and stewards fror the threatened plants shoul be convened immediately t give confidence to the work force and propose actio against the closures.

The combine committe which meets on June 6, mus also take action to back u this initiative. A conferenc of BL workers and steward should be called to exten support and organise resi tance.

*Occupy the five plan now.

suppo: throughout BL.

*Open the books of BL!

*Black all movement c production or machines!

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STRKE TO WIN

LEYLAND ACTION COMMIKE