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British Leyland workers should not be blamed for their 23,000-11,000 vote last week rejecting a series of 1 day per week token strikes and an overtime ban in pursuance of their £16.00 per week wage claim.

But there is no doubt that their vote creates & very serious situation for the trade unions within BL and the trade union movement as a whole.

BL have not only held the workforce to roughly 52% The T&G's Hawley backe T&G's Haw this year and 5½% next year plus a few- marginal improvements in conditions - they have emerged once again as thé trail-blazers for the engineering industry, this time in the fight to establish two year deals on pay and conditions.

As in the past, BL workers faced a very serious leadership problem from the outset.

Last year's monumental sell-out - in which a very powerful strike was called off after two days out, despite no change (for the better) in the offer - has left a-big credibility gap between the leadership and the membership.

This gap got wider when the delegate conference of representatives from the plants voted to overturn the decision taken by a massive majority at a series of mass meetings, to reject the principle of a two-year deal and negotiate only for a one year contract.

But worse was to come.

After negotiations with management produced only an additional 50p per week on the 2 year offer, or alternatively a lower (3.8%) ofter on a one year basis: The negotiating committee voted to reject both offers and refer the form of action to be taken to a delegate conference the following That conference was a disaster!

There were three resolutions in front of it. One from Longbridge called for 1-day strike per week plus an overtime ban. One from the Cowley assembly plant called for an all-out strike; and another called for acceptance of the 2 year deal.

After a sharp debate the Longbridge resolution, which was essentially motivated by the Communist Party through convenor Jack Adams, was carried by a substantial majority.

In fact Adams bulldozed it through by insisting that this was the only resolution which would be carried out at Longbridge. Given the predominance of the Longbridge vote, it was an ultimatum.

It is difficult to believe that those pushing such a line would not know its effects on rank and file BL workers, who are not looking for a soft way of fighting, but were closely watching their leaders to see if they were serious; for any indication of whether this year they were prepared to fight.

Token strikes and overtime bans - with the living example of such action being the health workers, now 6 months into their dispute - would so obviously give out very negative signals.

Whilst there is no means of assessing every plant, the piecemeal policy appears to have been decisive in swinging the vote against action.

Jack Adams presumably seriously misread the situation at Longbridge, since at the delegate conference he assured delegates that he was putting forward a policy which he could ensure support for his own plant.

Adams opposed moves -on the Longbridge stewards committee to strengthen the line put to the mass meeting by calling for an all out strike if there was no settlement after two weeks. He then went on to lose the vote for his own more timid policy by a margin of 2-1.

In Cowley there were different conditions in the two plants; Body and Assembly.

In the Body Plant, where a very militant labour force vay strikes, operate one day strikes leadership was determined to block any more militant and therefore more palatable alternative.

The delegate conference resolution was put to the mass meeting with no alternative, and was overwhelmingly defeated -under conditions where every indication was that a resolution for an all-out strike would have been carried easily.

In the Assembly Plant, things were different. The Shop Stewards Committee recognised the weakness in the policy and voted in line with the defeated proposal at Longbridge, to put an additional proposal for an all out strike after two weeks.

At the major mass meeting on day shift the 2 to 1 vote in favour of action was largely influenced by that perspective.

The role of the national leaders of the main unions involved should be noted. Ken Cure, AUEW Executive Councilman, moved acceptance at the JNC the first time the 2 year deal was ofiered.

Grenville Hawley, National Officer of the TGWU, also worked for its acceptance from the outset.

In fact even before the delegate conference overturned the membership mandate, he was proposing 'exploring the avenue' of a two year deal 'to see how far the company would go' At that stage the JNC was adding new demands to make the trade union claim appropriate to a two year deal - such as the right to renegotiate after a year (which BL of course rejected!)

Analysing and explaining the sell-out however does not alleviate the problem. now facing BL workers.

This setback comes after 4 years of sell outs, each of which has been used to increase management authority and step up the attacks on the shop floor.

As was stressed by TGWU convenor Bob Fryer at the Cowley Assembly mass meeting, this wage review was not just about wages.

It was about the balance of power in the plants between the Trade Unions and the management. It was about the treatment that workers are receiving at the hands of supervisors.

It was about the massive speed up taking place constant!! on the tracks. ... so did AUEW's Cure JOHN HARRIS It was about defending those agreements which are still left and fighting to re-establish those destro ed by management recent months.

On all these things the national trade union leaders again seriously failed the test. In fact they were, as on so many occasions in BL, on the opposite side of the fence from the members they supposedly represent.

Those in the decisive position in the shop stewards movement, such as Jack Adams, played a role which is now becoming painfully familiar to every BL worker.

The only consistent voice putting forward a clear alternative throughout these events was the Leyland Action Committee which produced a 4-page bulletin distributed in all plants and local bulletins in individual plants calling for an all out strike.

BL workers preparing for the further rounds of struggles stil to come should recognise who supports and who betrays them - and join the LAC's fight for a new, principled leadership.

DIG IN THE RESULT of the miners' ballot is without doubt a blow for the whole working class.

Many workers were hoping that the miners would take Thatcher on. That hope has now gone.

The NCB have taken the result as a green light for closures. Already three pits are earmarked.

The government won't make the same mistake as they did in 1981, when they

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ill Peters asks: TRONG?