Behind Longbridge Fiasco

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Longbridge workers demonstrate against the Social Contract earlier this year.

Robinson, a Communist Party member meekly told the protestors:

"If you want us to call it off, we can.

But he was far from dismayed at this result.

As Socialist Press has made clear, the major objective for Leyland management is to push through corporate bargaining, to take control away from shop stewards and place it in the hands of the union bureaucracy.

A Joint Working Party, composed of management and union bureaucrats, was set up for this purpose.

Leyland management produced a document, as a result of the discussion the Working party, which are designed to bring in corporate bargaining; an incentive scheme which would massively increase speed-up, with each worker's output being raised from an average of 8 cars a year to 15; and it also included the fringe benefits and penalty clauses thrown out by virtually every Leyland plant last January.

20% CLAIM it was on the basis of these proposals that Robinson and the Longbridge negotiating committee drew up the wage claim for the annual review.

The claim was in fact for only 20% (as against the 47% the press have claimed) which on an average wage of £65 is a rise of only £13; it also included incentive payments, modelled on management's own proposals for increasing speed-up.

The only resistance to this claim when it came up on the shop stewards committee • came from SWP members but Robinson was able to oppose their inadequate alternative of £20 as "too conservative" because it even fell short of the negotiating committee's claim which, together with the productivity parts, totals approximately £31.

Robinson then duly lodged the Longbridge claim with management When management flung it back at him and said that they were not prepared to negotiate separately with Longbridge, Robinson had no alternative but to call a strike.

Robinson found himself caught between two pressures,: management with whom he has worked hand in glove and whose main objective of corporate bargaining he openly supports; and the pressure from Longbridge workers, a pressure which Robinson has likened, on several occasions, to a boiling pot which threatens to boil over.

When management refused to negotiate there was a spontaneous demonstration by workers on Thursday who left the tracks and marched on management pouring rain demanding the right to negotiate.

Meetings were held in each section at which stewards put strike action to the vote. Workers voted on strike action to force management to negotiate: but Robinson chose not to call a mass meeting.

MAJORITIES

On the day shift, there were massive majorities in favour of strike action. Robinson then went on television claiming there was a fifty to one majority in favour of strike action.

This was major mistake because the night shift had not yet voted, and it gave management an ideal opportunity to intervene in a decisive way to reverse the They handed out a letter to every worker. In this letter they claimed that they had made an offer to Longbridge workers.

What they were referring to was their document which came out of the Joint Working Party which was still being negotiated In addition, the wage increases they were offering were strung out over two years.

They were able to point out quite correctly that their offer was basically the same as the Longbridge claim.

"the claim presented by the Trade Unions at Longbridge embodies all the principles contained in the Company's offer..."

This created a state of confusion. Workers thought that they had been conned by Robinson and the stewards.

MENTIONED Why hadn't management 's offer been mentioned before? Why were they going on strike if their claim was no different from what management anyway were offering?

It also appeared that management were prepared to negotiate.

Not surprisingly the voting on the night shift swung the other way. However, on sections where stewards were prepared to explain the issues carefully, sizable minority votes for strike action were recorded.

There was still overall a substantial majority of two to one in favour of strike action when the voting ended - with 8,889 in favour of action and 4,979 against.

However, because voting took place section by section those sections who were opposed to strike action did not feel the pressure which a mass meeting would have created to accept that they were a minority. but he cannot have been entirely unhappy with the outcome, even though, in the course of climbing down, largely as a result of his own errors of leadership, he lost some face.

Management's campaign tor corporate bargaining, a campaign which he has supported, has been given a boost.

In our view Robinson's collapse was entirely wrong: the strike should have gone ahead. In any event the problems flowed from his own contempt for the membership in failing to prepare for strike action with a mass meeting.

Steps must be taken to retrieve this situation. The stewards must meet to adopt a principled claim. A clear statement must be made rejecting corporate bargaining.

And the call must be for strike action to force Leyland to negotiate with the Longbridge committee Leaders of the print unions have blocked a call to extend the strike at North of England Newspapers throughout Westminster Press.

They refused to allow Evening paper journalists to join the three month old strike or to call out their own members in those areas.

The three month strike for a closed shop has reached deadlock and Westminster Press management are digging in for a long fight.

Last week they spent more than £3,000 on a glossy brochure attacking the closed shop for journalists. A copy was sent to every worker in the firm-at their home addresswith a first class stamp.

At the same time a less well publicised company document was

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