Nostrial Nets Chrysler Pleads Poverty Again
Socialist Press1977 1977-11-09Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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The managementinspired dispute at Chrysler's Lin wood plant, Scotland, has ended with the convening of an "urgent in depth examination" of working practices which limit productivity and efficiency at the factory.
Behind this dispute and the urgent enquiry he the plans of Chrysler International to get tough with their UK workforce.
Just two years after a £162 million handout from the Labour Chrysler are again pleading poverty.
Losses
In the first nine months of 1977 they claim to have lost £19 million. Soon there will be nothing left of a £20 million contingency provision fund set up on a 50-50 basis by the government and the company in 1975.
When this special fund runs out Chrysler International will have to decide whether to fund further losses themselves, appeal to the government for more handouts, or cut back on spending in the UK.
Provoked
It was with this situation in mind that the company decided to provoke the Linwood workers.
The fact that lay-off plans were being arranged in Chrysler's Stoke plant in Coventry five days before the dispute in Scotland proves that it was a deliberate provocation.
The capitalist press has posed the problem as a simple one of asking four inspectors to move a few yards from where they were working.
In actual fact the management were also attempting to speed up the car conditioning line and cut manning levels-all without going through procedure.
When workers refused to submit to these methods they were taken off the clock.
Chrysler are obviously intending to launch a campaign on speed-up and demanning, using the now routine threat of financial collapse and possible closure.
The enquiry will obviously be used to aid this campaign. The role of the trade union "representatives" Grenville Hawley and Gavin Laird will be to smooth the road to speed-up and the cutting of manning levels.
Chrysler workers have shown by their response to the provocation of the last two weeks that they will resist management attacks.
What they need is a policy on which to fight. Workers must carry out their own enquiry-into the books of No more pleading poverty. If Chrysler can't afford to run the company and pay its workers it must be nationalised without compensation under workers management.
NOON PARKWARD HULUNER DIVISION SHOP STER Rolls Royce strikers picket the Motor Fair.