The 4,000 strong workforce at British Leyland's Triumph plant at Canley, Coventry, had been we went to press by shop stewards when management refused to pay the second part of a prod ers on 9 April, and was supported by maintenance workers and back-up staff terms cer wone real despite management intimidation.
to take production workers off the clock, BLMC's local servant Eddie McGarry, the Transport and General Workers' Union convenor, suggested a cent output for nothing! The Triumph or not to continue the go-slow after a mass meeting last Friday which was split on the issue when shop stewards recommended a return to normal work ing. controlling the speed of the assembly line for more than a week when Line speeds were cut by 5 per cent uctivity deal because of the Government's quickly as possible. wage controls. The decision was endorsed by a mass meeting of triumph work When management then threatened on British Levland. "work-in' i.e. Leyland would get 95 per workers have been balloting on whether The imposition of a workers' veto on line speed shows that car workers are prepared to fight to defend jobs, living standards and working condiTons when given a cau. bur I t recent spate of strikes in British Leyland the sole concern of the union officials particularly those of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, has been to secure a return to normal working as NO SURPRISE This should come as no surprise Even before the TUC gave up the fight to cereno uvue standaras oy suppormn: the £6 limit, the officials had unconditionally accepted the Ryder Report Under Ryder the Labour Government has used the threat of withdrawing capital investment in order to ram through speed-up. Last December a treeze or capital spending was announced by BL management, and now it seems unlikely that Leyland will receive much of the trum capital due in une nextew weeks. When Scanion talks about the need to improve 'industrial relations in Leyland, what he really means is that BL workers should submit to this crude success but for the fact that important sections of the traditional plant leaderships - the convenors and the shot stewards - have accepted the main bulk of the Ryder Report. Communist Party convenors like Derek Robinson at Austin Rover (Tysley) have played a leading role in convincing the shop stewards of the need to 'participate under Ryder They have publicly attacked workers like mose al Kover soul wao nave voted overwhelmingly against participation.
Although the recent toolmakers strikes were led mainly be members of the Communist Partv and the CP-led AUEW Broad Left, there has been no concerted attempt to unite these strug gles into a joint assault on the £6 limit. As a result the 32 strikers at S.U. Carburettors were quickly isolated by AUEW officials and after a series of back-door manoeuvres driven back to work
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