[steward victimised at BL's Cowley Assembly VO ly…]

Scan page 16

steward victimised at BL's Cowley Assembly

VO

ly impossible.

Even then they called off their strike by a very narrow majority indeed.

There was strong support from Longbridge drivers: other transport drivers must see your case as really blatant victimisation.

Yes. There is a relationship between the transport sections anyway, but the issue I was sacked for has a relevance to drivers.

: The official reason I was sacked - for breach of contract through a lapsed HGV driving licence - was only a pretext for sacking me, but it is a serious issue in itself. It i a driving licence know more than anyone else that I was victimised. They know that BL has never used the discipline procedure, let alone sacking, for a road traffic offence.

They • also know that many other BL drivers have completely lost their licences: through the courts, but have been found other work.

Overlooked

They know that other drivers have done exactly the same as me, overlook the renewal. of their HGV licences, and no action has ever been taken or even suggested: - One driver had a road traffic accident and the police found his licence had lapsed. BL told him to stay in the yard until his new one came through.

What will you do know -will you go to an industrial tribunal?

Yes. Tribunals were set up in order to prevent industrial action over sackings, and of course they have no powers to reinstate even if they recommend it. But now there is no possibility of industrial action there is no reason to avoid a Tribunal. Buckle, the TGWU District Secretary. He was. determined from the outset that there would be no strike.

He denounced the only statement defending me, called a mass meeting at the worst time and then refused to attend it.

Secondly, the weakness of the shop stewards movement on the plant which has been dismantled over the last two years.

It has been reduced from almost 200 TGWU stewards 2½ years ago, down to 40 today. It is just not an ettee tive force, particularly in countering Company propaganda fighting ' under harsh conditions.

Thirdly, continuous sell-outs in BL by national trade union leaders. They leave a mark and create a cynicism amongst the workforce which works against you in this kind of situation. This is not the first time the TGWU bureaucracy has attacked you and other left wingers in the plant. Could you say a little about the previous occasions?

Yes. I was victimised in 1974 by BL. The transport department struck for month shop steward's card back. But the TGWU used it tó do what they called "reorganising" case in car components for example. The Smiths factory in Witney for example faces almost exactly the same conditions.

The central issue in combatting this onslaught is the struggle for democratic control of the unions - against the role of people like Terry Duffy (elected by the postal ballot influenced by - the media); Moss Evans (elected for life); and David Buckle (appointed for lifé and accountable to no-one on the shop floor) - an official who arrogantly refuses to attend a mass meeting of those who pay his wages.

There is also the way the employers are now organised, much more than in the past. All struggles like this. one are organised by consultants who pool the experiences of the employers.

Clinical

It was not like the past - one big witch-hunt. It was a carefully. planned clinical operation. The extent of these changed conditions should not be underestimated.

In BL there has to be a serious reorganisation and rebuilding of the shop floor movement. In a sense it is going back to the drawing