Leyland Workers Strike Back

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ing a company plan that would mean 4,100 redundancies in 1982, paving the way for the decimation of Leyland Vehicles and the privatisation of profitable areas in the near future.

Workers at Leyland Vehicles are traditionally moderate. Unlike the BL Cars division, where Edwardes has only succeeded because rank and file resistance has been repeatedly sabotaged by union officials, at Leyland Vehicles the workforce has accepted a 50% cut in jobs since 1977 and several single-figure wage increases (4% for the 1981-2 review) with no resistance at all.

Astonishing

But now they are fighting. And the solidarity that the LV workers are showing is astonishing.

The dispute started on Thursday 21st, when workers at the Leyland Technical Centre refused to touch the MT207 (Boxer replacement) transferred from Bathgate. When management took a fitter off the clock for blacking the work, 120 other workers walked out immediately.

Halted

By Friday 22nd the whole of Leyland Vehicles production in Lancashire was halted, with 8,500 manual and clerical workers at Leyland and Chorley having voted overwhelmingly for strike action. That day, 3,600 workers at Bathgate near Glasgow (where 1,365 jobs are due to be chopped) joined the strike, occupying their plant and impounding completed vehicles.

The solidarity being demonstrated by the strikers is magnificent. At the Spurrier and Parrington gates at Leyland, foremen (ASTMS members), male and female clerks (APEX members), women canteen staff (T&G members), are all on the picket line alongside the predominantly AUEW hourly paid manual workers - an unprecedented occurrence in BL.

The major problem freing the LV strikers is the national AUEW leadership, who have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to save Edwardes' bacon by sabotaging rank and file Only a few weeks ago, for instance, AUEW executive member Gerry Russell told a mass meeting at Leyland: We must beware of those people who spread false hopes that there is an alternative to all pulling logether to save the only British motor company' Unfortunately, the strategy of the Leyland Joint Works Committee in Lancashire offers no adequate real alternative to the AUEW leadership's treachery. Thecentral demand put forward by convenor Mick Coyne and the I.V Works Commitlee is for a six month postponement of the corporate plan and for management to consider an alternative plan to be prepared Committee. An alternative workers plan for BL is necessary. But plans on paper never convinced the employers or saved a single job: the experience at Vickers on Tyneside, where great efforts were put into the workers' plan, yet the fightback folded up weakly, underlines that.

And the 'alternatives the Works Committee has been talking about - based on import controls and a return to workers' participation and increased investment are no more adequate than the whole projcct of reviving British capitalism through a policy of nationalism, class collaboration, and reflation.

To defeat Edwardes

the Leyland management, LV workers must fight for a policy of occupation of all LV plants (not just Bathgate); flying pickets out to all LV plants not taking action (including Guys in Wolverhampton, where 740 workers have voted to accept closure); work-sharing with no loss of pay to protect all LV jobs.

Workers in BL Cars division must push for maximum support for the LV strikers. Immediately that means sending messages of congratulations and support; organising delegations to Lancashire and Bathgate: demanding an emergency meeting of the BL combine committee: and taking collections in every plant.

Beyond these activities, we must push for solidarity strike action throughout BL.

Leyland Vehicles must be the spearhead of an all out fight to protect jobs and defeat Edwardes once and for all.

Background to the Leyland jobs fightback;

Leyland Action Committee conference

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Sorialist Organiser no.70 January 28. 1983 Page 3

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