Victimised After Triumph Fight
Socialist Press1976 1976-05-05Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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Following the 10-day go-slow at Triumph's Canley plant in Coventry shop steward Jack Sprung has been suspended on full pay. He is charged with conducting a camera team on an "unauthorised" tour of the plant.
As we go to press shop stewards are discussing the case. There must be a determined effort to reinstate Sprung, who has a record of conflict with the right wing.
BLOCKED
During the go-slow, which was sparked off by a dispute over productivity payments blocked by the Labour government's £6 limit, workers organised production without control of foremen and resisted attempts by right-wing T&G convenor Eddie McGarry to call off the action. returned when to management fixed Even the workforce returned production levels it was only after a ballot, and agreement depended on correction In the article in our last edition entitled Sheffield Stalinists Attack Jobs there was a factual error.
We incorrectly reported that Colin Taylor and lan Thackeray, convenor and JSSC Chairman of Laycocks had signed an agreement with management "with recourse to stewards or membership".
We now learn that in fact 2½ years ago such an agreement was arcented hu s mase meetino payment of full wages during the dispute, an assurance that the increased productivitywould be taken into account in future pay negotiations, and that the company books should be open for MPs to investigate charges of investment wasted on extra supervisors.
OPPOSITION
Even so there was opposition to calling off the go-siow from 1,538 out of the 5,427 who voted. Many workers have been further angered by management's refusal to pay more than 75% wages for the period of the go-slow.
The dispute has many important lessons, the main one being the need to remove the likes of McGarry and build new This is all the more pressing at Canley (at present with 8,000 manual workers) where it has been announced that car production will be phased out by 1980.
TRANSFERRED
The Dolomite range is being transferred to Solihull and other models wil either be transferred or run out altogether. Canley wil become a plant producing engines and gear boxes.
While it has been stressed by management that there wil be adequate retraining, those wishing to stay with car assembly could be found jobs at Solihull, and that redundancies are "unlikely", it is also the case that this all depends on adequate finance from the NEB. • Workers at Triumph should extend their recent demand for an MPs' investigation of the company to one for a trade union open the books committee. What are the real plans for Canley and its workers?