BL: bonus claim will sap the fight

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Bill Peters reports on preparations for this year's wage review "Bonus consolidation is the opposite of what we need - and Anradded factor is that "Edwardes has made major steps along the road of smashing.

Adams, escape route will be the rade union movementin BE as a result of the last two placed in the hands of the sell-outs. Another debacle this year would hand him the 'new' JNC set up out of last initiative still further". THIS YEAR'S British Leyland wage review, which (like last year's) is strategically important to Tory wages policy, has been dealt a heavy blow by the Communist Party.

At a meeting of the shop stewards' combine committee last Saturday, Jack Adams, combine committee chairman, Longbridge convenor, and a leading member of the CP, successfully pushed through a policy motion for this year's review which places BL workers at a serious disadvantage. It calls for a claim based on bonus consolidation.

Bonus consolidation was precisely the basis of last year's dramatic sell-out by the General Secretaries and the TUC. They negotiated a sell-out settlement based on the guarantee of the first £3.75 of the bonus, despite this being contrary to policy of the Combine Committee, the convenors conference, and the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC).

Model

This sell out was a model for the ASLEF betrayal.

Now the sell-out merchants like Grenville Hawley of the T&G and Ken Cure of the AUEW will hardly believe their luck. This year, instead of the problem of fighting and conspiring to get away from a straight wage claim and onto juggling with the bonus, they could have the Combine Committee behind them.

There were two motions at the Combine meeting. The policy moved by Adams from the Longbridge works committee called for consolidation of the maximum bonus of £30, £l6 on the rate, and 13.5% on minimum time rate. The resolution from the shop stewards' committee at the Cowley Assembly Plant called for £20 on the rate, across the board, and NO negotiation on the bonus.

The call in Adams' motion for £16 on the rate as well as bonus consolidation is beside the point. Since bonus consolidation company policy, it is obvious that they will negotlate on that, not the basic rate.

Offer

Adams know very well that they will not consolidate the full £30 (which only one or two plants are getting), or anything like that; but will offer to consol idate the £ 3.75 they guaranteed last year, and probably offer to guarantee a few pounds more on top of that.

This will then be presented as partially meeting the maioritv of BL workers, since their bonus is already in excess of that.

year's seli-out, which is worse than the previous committee. Additional places have been created, most of which have been filled by full-time officials.

There are now 17 fulltime officials on the 38 man (and they are all men) committee. These include Terry Duffy's brother, Dennis Duffy In this situation the combine committee decision cannot be accepted by BL workers. This year's wage review is critical, not just for the rate of pay, but as a challenge to the whole strategy of the company, which is to smash the trade union movement, establish total management• control, _ and drive up the rate of profit.

Edwardes has made major steps along this road as a result of the sell-outs of the last two reviews. Another debacle this year would hand him the initiative still further.

This policy is hard to defeat from the level of individual plants. United action on a review is the best time to take Edwardes on.

Adams' policy must therefore be reversed. This can still be done, since the claim is not yet officially formulated. The Combine Committee decision has no official standing, although of course its decisions have considerable authority.

Last year the Combine recommendation became the official claim, although Adams was opposed to it. It was a Cowley motion for a straight wage increase and refusal to bring the bonus into it.

Procedure

The JNC has announced the following procedure for drawing up the claim.

1. Plant shop stewards' meetings at the beginning of October.

2. There will be plant mass meetings only in the Cowley Assembly Plant and the Swindon Body Plant -on the grounds that none of the other plants want them.

3. Each of the unions will hold a separate delegate conference on October 4.

4. A full delegate conference October 6.

5. A JNC meeting on October 7/8.

To establish a fighting policy in this process will be difficult. First we must fight for mass meetings to take place in all plants. When the JNC calls for no mass meetings, it shows it has no will to involve ana mobilise the membership. But without such involvement no real fight for any claim is possible.

Second, shop stewards committees should reject the combine committee claim and support alternative pro posals for a flat rate increase claim. Put the policy to mass Adams, the CP, and the right wing will fight hard against such a policy. Already they are talking about "the difficult trading situation" and pointing to the fall in Metro sales and the two-week lay-off at Longbridge at the end of September and beginning of October.

These factors are not determining the mood of the BL workforce. They are intluenced by wage packets that are impossible to live on, and John Harris Jack Adams knows it!" the constant att cks f om management that canno : be adequately fough from the individual plants.

The necessary factor for a fightback in BL is a claim which will unite the workforce and limit the scope of the leadership to sell them out.

Bonus consolidation is the opposite of that - and Jack Adams knows it!

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trade union claim, yet it will not mean an extra penny in the pockets of the vast