[TGWU official Grenville Hawley leads a Confed march…]

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TGWU official Grenville Hawley leads a Confed march against an Edwardes scheme « but by the time of the march the Confed was already moving for acceptance of the scheme!: the time of the march the Confed was alreadv moving for accentance of the scheme! . ment were publicising their breach of procedure could plans to crush the shop automatically be sacked. stewards' movement, inclu- Instead of rejecting such ding a move to force full- proposals out of hand, the time convenors back on General Secretaries agreed their jobs, and restrict to a timetable for its rapid the facilities available to negotiation. stewards. Talks went on under a A major stage in this cloud of secrecy, until offensive was achieved by eventually the text was Edwardes in the now rout- endorsed unanimously by ine 'eleventh hour' sell-out the full executive of the talks which scuttled the AUEW, despite the misorganising picketing and It then remained for massing their strength for TGWU official Grenville an all-out battle with Ed- Hawley to railroad the wardes, union general secr- draconian document etaries sat down and ace- through his union strucepted a 'new' offer which ture. To do so he decided to was worse than the origin- rule that any TGWU plant al. In exchange for purely stewards' committee which marginal concessions on failed to reply or which prothe money offer, union posed specific amendleaders agreed to negot- ments rather than rejectiate a new procedure agree- ing the whole document ment on disputes and disci- outright was therefore in pline by January 1982; favour of it 'in principle' to a 'plant audit' - suppos- nut a single committee had edly to iron out anomalies accepted the document -Mena or rever, 19,000 car workin the Midlands were strike: their action was iring Moss Evans onto scene as a strikebreaka the scale of Duffy. ammoned to a topI meeting with EdwardEvans too was forced to i over the precipice' -lon April 17 obediently led a document which ¡a total capitulation to agement.

Notice • the embarrassment of Be claimed as a victory, fact that management agreed to give ten Is notice before making br changes in line with ฿2 page document. other words, with ten ' notice any agreement working practice could I be unilaterally ended he company! | August of 1980, Ed¡les' decision to with• BL from the Enginng Employers' Federai effectively scrapped a le series of national iements affecting minio rates premium pay its, holidays, and hours vork, opening the door ill further attacks. hat same month it commissioned by ns and the IGWU ership on the future of tame up with proposals th — like Edwardes' plans - would restore bility' only at the exse of union members, in icular & no-strike Be. This was yet anothignal of the readiness nion officials to take a bonable' line, supportmanagement against * num mamhara I few months later came rther miserable betrayin wages. Edwardes' b offer was voted down workers decided by a to-one margin for re action. Once again arder turned to uninn jals as his protectors. na. nAiroras rinna "nisim bett and took them for another walk along his now well-known 'precipice' They decided to accept the 6.8% - and then steamrollered acceptance through the National Joint Negotiating Committee and a convenors' conference. .

A second round of mass meetings was held - in which the decisive vote turned out to be that of Longbridge, where Robinson' 's successor Jack Adams argued for acceptance of the offer and proclaimed it carried. • Within a few weeks of this sell-out a new round of victimisation had begun, with the sacking of the 'Longbridge 8' - workers trom the Metro: track involved in a stoppage of work and demonstration inside the factory.

Once again officials intervened, once again an 'inquiry' was staged -with Adams' support - to defuse a strike which carried over Christmas in the teeth of a witch-hunt; and once again, having done everything possible in advance to kill the struggle stone dead, union leaders went through the ritual of a mass meeting vote - declaring it defeated when in fact the strike call was carried - before burying the victims.

Three months later, Edwardes dropped a new bombshell: a new package of closures, involving further 5,000 jobs, and focusing production on the two main areas - Longbridge and Cowley. The implications of this were clear: not only would more jobs be lost, but also the screws would be still further tichtened on trade union var rights in both plants.

Union. officials went through the motions of opposing the sackings -but took no action to oppose even the closure of the modern Rover SD1 plant in Solihull.

By July of 1981 manage.

AUEW's Duffy 1981 pay review.

With BL workers already venors. and in addition they agreed in bonus payments.

The 'new' procedure agreement was in fact a document drafted months earlier.

In its original form, slightly revised in March, it included the introduction of a Joint Works Committee structure to form the final stage of procedure in each plant, and a new JNC consisting almost entirely of full-time officials appointed by the Executive Committees of the 11 It also planned a new discipline procedure giving ntant manadament the VILG right of summary dismissal in the event of what they defined as 'gross industrial misconduct'; and by making the new disputes procedure a part of each individual's contract of amnlarmont it eat mit tn ensure that anyone in TGWU's Evans givings of AUEW conBy this token - though ine ony uppusiul was from the Cowley Assembly Plant, whose convenor Bub Fryer conducted a vain last-ditch struggle in the TGWU to prevent Hawley from simply - signing the document.

It is under this new procedure document that Alan Thornett is now being victimised in Cowley.

The 'plant productivity audit' exercise, agreed in the midnight meeting with Edwardes, turned out to be a loose mandate for BL management to do anythino thev liked on manning levels and productivity.

Together with moves to implement the 92-page 'strings' document from the 1980 pay review -which offered management comnlete mohility of labour and the breaking EDVARDES FOR MICHALI H BLACKMAII. ROBBERY FRA & INTIMIJATIO La nicidiii

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