Court blow to 10% limit

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PRESS The coalition government was given its orders by the CBI, the Tories and the courts this week _"attack the working class directly, don't use us as an anvil"

Sam Silkin, the attorneygeneral, was forced to apologise to the courts on Monday and to allow a deal outside the 10% limit to be paid.

The extraordinary spectacle of the Tories pushing through a breach of the policy came precisely because the courts and the Tories were determined to resist PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report supporter Robinson native" to Edwardes-an increase in production from 850,000 to 1 million cars a year.

But as soon as Edwardes got up at Kenilworth and dismissed their "plan" as impractical with a contemptuous wave of the hand, these plant 'participation' men obediently rose to give him a standing ovation.

They then got down to the real meat of the day-nodding through the vicious so-called "Security of Earnings" document, which contains far-reaching anti-strike clauses and new procedures for disciplining workers.

This was the document voted out a year ago by mass meetings of workers throughout Leyland plants.

They completed the day by agreeing to the job evaluation criteria required by Leyland to carry through the central bargaining programme designed to control wages in the future.

Quite obviously such servile "leaders" have nothing to offer Leyland workers; who stand to face the full brunt of the drive by the Lib-Lab coalition government to force up exploitation on the shop floor through a sustained attack on manning levels.

Workers must reject every aspect of Edwardes' plan.

It starts out not from the interests of the workforce and the working class as a whole but from the employers' lust for profit; it aims to force Leyland workers to shoulder the whole brunt of a capitalist crisis that is none of their making; and in doing so it draws on figures and plans which have been carefully hidden from the eyes of trade unionists.

Now the convenors elected by workers to defend jobs and conditions have been transformed through the worker participation machinery into the supervisory police force of the management.

There must be a complete break with participation. In place of these management stooges workers must elect committees with the task of fighting to force Leyland to attacks on employers, squeezed between the threat of a strike and government sanctions.

Silkin was forced to concede the right of Holliday Hall engineering firm to pay an undisclosed sum outside the 10% limit.

He declared that any thought that the government was trying to force the breaking of agreements was a mistake.

"Insofar as those statements were construed as an invitation to employers to break contracts of employment, I unreservedly withdraw that interpretation on Edwardes supporter Fraser open its full accounts for independent trade union examination.

This would expose the way in which the "nationalised" Leyland corporation is used as little more than a marketing outlet for the entirely privately owned and hugely profitable component manufacturers that actually produce two-thirds of each finished Leyland car.

Fraudulent claim

It would expose the fraudulent claim that "taxpayers' money" is being poured into Leyland to support an overpaid, underworked, labour force.

It would show that money put into Leyland under Ryder is being charged at rates of interest up to 13%, amounting to £60 million a year.

It would show the need to fight for a nationalised, planned, integrated motor and component industry, with a programme of useful public works to ensure that the available resources are utilised to the maximum.

At the same time wherever management attempt to cut back jobs, throwing large numbers of workers into pools of surplus labour, these moves must be resisted Workers must demand the reduced amount of work available be shared equally among the whole workforce, with no loss in average earnings, under the control of trade union committees.

Where lines, models or plants are threatened with closure, this must be fought by occupation.

Extra lever

Every "voluntary" redundancy, every job left vacant through "natural wastage" means an extra worker on the 1½ million-strong dole queues and gives Leyland an extra lever to force home speed-up on those remaining.

The Edwardes report must not only be rejected-it must be defeated in struggle.

And in the course of these struggles the Lib-Lab coalition that has spawned Edwardes and hatched his plan must be broken. behalf of the government .

His statement is a blow against the government black list. The employer, Sir Rupert Speir-who signed the deal in November-described the statement as "a victory for common sense"-in other words attacks on the working class must be carried out directly, •not via the employer.

It was clear Silkin knew the courts would defend employers even at the risk of damaging the coalition grip on pay policy.