Rowntrees York strike to save jobs
Socialist Organiser1984 1984-03-08Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 15 →
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THE strike by maintenance staff at Rowntree Mackintosh in York against the company's plans to reduce the 850-strong maintenance workforce by 200 is now entering its fifth week.
The strikers are under intense pressure from both the employers and other workers. Process and transport staff are still working normally. 1,250 production line workers have been laid off.
When it became clear that voluntary redundancy and internal transfers could only achieve 130 or so of the required job losses, the craft unions, led by the AUEW and the EETPU, decided to fight management on the issue.
The roots of the dispute lie in the company's controversial decision to call in an "outside" research firm to investigate efficiency at the factory early last year. On their supposed findings, management announced a reduction of maintenance staff. But to the intense fury of