HOW WOULD you like to return to work after your holidays and be laid off without paytwo hours later? If you would, then 'get down to Ford' warehnall enjoy benefit omitted Company's commercials, but enjoyed Thisis just what happened to 1,600 workers on unte Paint.
Assembly Plant nightshift on Monday 20 August.
Management's excuse for the lay-off — a clear case of the bosses' "secondary picketing tactics the decision of 97 paint shop workers to continue strike action in support of a tellow worker sacked by alleged 'gross misconduct involving violence on a police officer, months before his actual trial takes place.
Tiny It was a tiny incident that gave rise to the dispute but it gives a good indication of why Ford reputation of being one of the most vicious and successill managemenls in British industry.
It also demonstrates what a joke Tory proposals for union reform are when 99 per cent of disputes are provoked The management in the PTA plant were trying hard to engineer a dispute for month the shutdown at the end of July. It only takes a handful of men to stop work and the long lines halt and a lay-off is possible.
If management is feeling really vicious it can also lay off a thousand or more workers on the corresponding shift in the Body Plant. Booths The reason management wanted the lay-off is because the schedule for stocking up and re-tooling for the new design Cortina is way behind. are hitches all over the line and even now only one of the three automated paint spray booths is in operation.
Rather than the company paying this fringe the Trim and was enjoys the so-called trade by manageworkers pay by annual casual labour while problems are ironed out.
police, over lay-offs into the plants.
Damage to cars.
There three cars. for its own bungling it is making the treating them its production The incident which gave rise to the number dispute is of concern to every trade On the nightshift on 11 July the an unprecedented move, were called into the PTA. Even at the time of the Ford riot and occupation two years ago attempt was made to call the police especially paint surfaces, is a working hazard in the PTA. Rarelv is anv notice taken of it. But this time the police were quickly called to investigate alleged damageto That, to borrow a phrase, is when the shit hit the fan. Workers in the resisted police attempts remove one man. More police called. It would seem that a large of panda patrols London have so little to do at night that between 20 and 30 were able to arrive in no time at all.
However, something known 'the balance of forces' meant there were no arrests.
But the investigation continued. As a result, one man was charged with criminal damage, a shop steward with assault on police (which company admits is a lie), and a third man with assault on police. This is the person the company also sacked.
After wasting weeks in procedure trying to get this decision reversed, the paint shop walked out on the eve of to the summer shutdown. To guarantee that they could implement a lay-off immediately on the return to work, East gave notice by sending out letters to all 'B • shift employees before the end of the holidays. leaflet as Workers Group explained the significance of these events: "What is at stake here is not only "double justice" of the worst kind but, management to use the police to settle internal plant disputes. 'Is Ford now intending to staff the personnel departments with the local CID? We must ensure that the unions plants again.
Police work management when The Ford strike, figure. when the necessary Even branches put out by the Ford (the Combine)
Catch 22!
decision by hour week, taking their jobs. insist that no police are used inside the Although there was a return to Thursday night after agreed to change the sacking to a suspension and pay the man until his trial in December, the question of the police remains one of oustanding concern.
The lay-off also came at a time the preliminary sparring starting about this year's Ford claim, due to be submitted on 24 September.
aim of management in provoking small strikes and lay-offs is to weaken. the collective strength of workers which was demon strated in last year's nine-week pay which buried the Labour government's 5 per cent wage limit.
This year there is no official limit and the officials are talking of a "substantial increase'. Of course this is to avoid committing themselves to a Unanimous The Ford Workers Group (the Combine) is suggesting that figure should be £125. But unlike last year, the Coventry conference of shop stewards produced a high claim and forced it on the officials, the senior stewards and full-timers are much more in control.
Despite the unanimous position of the Body Plant shop stewards in favour of a Coventry conference this discussion in the union Dagenham has been blocked on the grounds that the claim is an inter-union one and therefore only inter-union bodies, i.e. the Joint Works Committees, can discuss it On the positive side, the officials are making a cost of living agreement one of the main points in the claim. It this is linked to a serious fight for a 35 Ford workers will be COLCON towards defending their standard of living and