Cowley Setback for Right Wing
Socialist Press1976 1976-06-02Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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Alan Thornett was last week elected chairman of the mittee of the British Leyland Cowley Assembly Plant.
His election, at a meeting attended by nearly 100 of the plant's shop stewards, followed six months of bureaucratic manoeuvres by the right wing of the T&GWU, who were determined to prevent it.
Thornett had been chairman of the committee up to his victimis ation by Leyland in 1974. After this the I&GWU bureaucracy terminated all offices, held reelections under conditions of a national witch-hunt, and split up the powerful 5/55 Branch of which Thornett "was Chairman.
The bureaucracy followed this by ruling that the chairman of the newly formed 5/293 Branch would automatically take the office of chairman of the JSSC.
This ruling caused them problems when, last December, Thornett was elected chairman of the 5/293 Branch.
As demands grew from the stewards that he assume the position of JSSC chairman under the previous ruling, the bureaucracy quickly changed their position, and declared that the matter would have to be decided by the T&GWU stewards (traditionally the AUEW provide the JSSC secretary and the T&GWU, the chairman).
This new angle of the officials aiso contained a further problem -Thornett was likely to be elected by the stewards. So they refused to convene a stewards meeting!
A meeting of stewards was then called under the authority of the two T&GWU branches in the factory, and Alan Thornett was elected the T&GWU nominee for endorsement at a full JSSC meeting on May 24th. .
Again the T&GWU officials switched position - this time announcing that they no longer recognised the issc and that in their opinion it should not exist.
They followed this up by approaching management and asking them to withdraw the use of the works canteen for the May 24th meeting. Management were only too eager to oblige.
The successful fight to restore these facilities to the committee, together with the election of Thornett, were both blows to the bureaucracy, who are now redoubling their efforts to establish dictatorial control in other directions.
In general terms their strategy is to break up any committee, branch, Trades Council or any other body not controlled by them. Their failure so far to destroy the Cowley JSSC shows they have a long way still to go.