Post-mortem on Ford Sell-out

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Textile pay strike Tuttons THERE WERE plenty of smiles at the outcome of this year's Ford pay struggle: grins were to be seen in Downing Street, in boardrooms around the country, and in the TUC headquarters, the focal point of those fighting to avoid any struggle with the Tories.

But thousands of angry trade unionists will be conducting their own investigation of the 'carbon copy' pay sell-outs in Ford and BL which have strengthened the morale of the employers while signing away both living standards and working conditions.

A NEW Year's directive from - Haringey Labour Encouraged by the continued capitulations and betrayals by union leaders, and egged on by the Thatcher government, even nondescript bosses like Peter Parker of British Rail are issuing Edwardesstyle threats to suspend striking train drivers. The sell-out has given new heart to Coal Board chief Sir Derek Ezra in his efforts to force home a pit pay offer well below the rise in the cost of living.

And in the remainder of the engineering industry, where few firms are as profitable as Ford, the Ford settlement for a mere 7.4 per cent will knock the stuffing out of many pay claims, and strengthen the employers' resolve to demand humiliating 'strings' How was this substantial setback, with its widespread implications, imposed upon Ford workers? A post-mortem reveals astonishing similarities to the BL betrayal.

The companies of course are very different. BL is publicly advertised as "bankrupt' , limping from one closure threat to the next, and waving its tatty credentials as the last surviving British' car manufacturer. That, to take out a temporary injunction against the council to block this move. according to union leaders, was the reason for their urgent wish to avoid a battle with BL.

Yet they had exactly the same approach with Ford, which is a model of profitability - currently the most profitable section of the loss-making American multinational corporation!

The common factor is that both firms are able to call upon the expertise of British union leaders, who have proved themselves world-beaters in grovelling and prostration.

In both cases, under shop floor pressure, the claim submitted was for a £20 increase. In both cases the 'final' offer in reply was well below even the level of inflation. In BL it was 3.8 per cent, in Ford 7.4 per cent. -But also in both cases the money offer was tied to an obscure and open-ended package of productivity 'strings' , the final details of which were not revealed to workers on the shop floor. And in both Ford and BL, the verdict of the shop floor on these 'final' offers was the same: an overwhelming vote at mass meetings for rejection and all-out strike action.

Obviously working from the same handbook, both Edwardes and Ford negotiator Paul Roots left the union leaders to stew in their own juice until the eleventh hour before making behind-the-scenes moves to ram home the sell-out.

In Ford the 'new' offer, put directly to chief negotiator Ron Todd over the heads of the negotiating committee, gave workers nothing except an earlier introduction of the 39 hour week and negotiations on pensions. The money - as at BL - was unchanged.

Todd - his knees knocking at the prospect of a strike - grasped at the chance for escape. He put the new deal to the 56-man Joint Negotiating Commit-. tee. Like at BL, this committee is heavily stacked with full-time union officpeo Amalgamated Society| of Textile Workers and Kindred Trades says the management will not even negotiate over the claim for a 10 per rise and consolidation.

But the workers' main obstacle comes from their own union officials. Union general secretary Bert Lisle, who at 74 is rather past the normal retirement age, has written to branch officials and again to all rkers: I am saying quitGet back to work eatened the withdraw ials who don't even work for Ford: on the Ford committee, full-timers outnumber plant convenors by 32 to 24.

With the officials' votes, and a minority of convenors backing the deal, the committee accepted it and even went further than the BL betrayal by calling off the strike though some plants defied this appeal.

(It is useful to note that among the 'strings' demanded by Ford and conceded by Todd is an arrangement whereby details of new productivity arrangements - like in Edwardes' package in BL - are to be handed almost exclusively by these same full-time officials).

But even with a recommendation for acceptance by both Todd and the comstrike was caused by a few irresponsible shop stewards' but all te workers are taking their turns in a 24 hour picket..

In a secret ballot organised by the stewards, 137 workers voted against accepting the company's package, 49 for accepting, with 42 abstaining and 25 not voting. A mass meeting bassed a vote of no confidence in Lisle. * Little is going into the vorks, and with no one in ide til dothi te anvik 35 ST por mittee, and with the strike going off half-cock on the Tuesday morning, shop floor workers, like their brothers and sisters in BL, were far from convinced. In several plants, where a firm lead was given for rejection, the offer was thrown out by large majorities.

In Swansea a vote of no confidence in Todd was carried. Convenor Brian Phillips denounced the fact that:

"It seems that a deal was done with just a couple of phone calls between Ron Todd, ACAS, and the Ford management"

Only after it was plain that they could not hold out alone on the offer did workers at Halewood, Bridgend and Swansea vote reluctantly for acceptance. That reluctance and the strength of their stand indicate that while this battle might be over, Ford have by no means won the war to impose their strings.

Just as Edwardes has faced rearguard resistance in Longbridge and Cowley since the settlement, so the Ford management can expect a rough ride if they seek to attack existing conditions.

But this strength on the shop floor remains despite the role of union leaders, who have consistently refused to lift a finger - let alone wage coordinated mass action - against the offensive by employers and the Tory government. On the one hand union leaders accept the employers' argument that the first priority is to preserve profitability - even at the expense of jobs and wages. On the other hand, union bureaucrats, sponging off the workers' movement, fear that the working class in defeating Thatcher would then go on to drive out the reactionaries in their own organisations, thus toppling the officials from their positions of influence and privilege.

As train drivers, steel workers, lorry drivers and others face the necessity to struggle in defence of their jobs and living standards, the bitter but vital lesson of the "carbon copy' sell-outs is the need for a new revolutionary leadership to carry through the fight to defeat the Tories. We urge readers to join us in fighting for such a leadership.

victory TGWU restaurant workers al Tu tons, Covent Garden, L ndon, have won their strike.

The restaurant owner has withdrawn the wage cut and victimisations which provoked the strike, and recognised the union.

Strong support from TGWU delivery workers and NUPE refuse collectors helped gain this victory.

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