THERE was fighting talk from the platform when Derek Robinson got up to speak at the London demonstration last week:
Robinson, a member of the CP, is full-time convenor for the British 'Leyland Longbridge plant. As you can see from the table on this page, this is not just any old Leyland plant.
He was one of those who attended the Kenilworth meeting called by Edwardes after his appointment as Leyland boss. This meeting, of senior stewards and convenors, voted confidence in Edwardes — equivalent to supporting his plan Sponsorship is also well-known for opposition to the tool-makers' strike. weekend he announced his support for Leyland's sponsorship of Mark Phillips' show-jumping "They should have gone into sponsorship icalil.. earlier', he said.
His speech is a case study in how to talk about action without giving a clue what to do.
we are saying trom this meeting that we Jare serious in our intent and under no cir cumstances are we prepared to accept that there are any plant closures, partial plant closures, or mediatoes.
We shall fight on any basis that we consider to be necessary. It will be essential for every plant that's confronted with a cutback in labour or plant closure to ensure that their work is not transferred to any other plant in Leyland.
Serious Thạt means that the TR7 is not going from canev to solhull, It means that ine work at Castle Bromwich is neither going to Swindon nor Liverpool: and it means that if they intend to transfer the Allegro then it's not going to move. That is the message that we're giving.
We are not going to allow any plant to fight in This is a united struggle that require the fullest and maximum support from every single factory inside Leyland.
situation inside bus and truck is just as serious. They're faced with exactly the same problems -no new models coming through at the rate that's necessary, cutbacks in investment which makes them even more uneconomic to produce.
We've got the same problems and what we ought to be demanding is that the government nly support ine trade umon allellauve ror Future That's the way we are going to secure the Photos: future for Leyland in it's entirety. And not only remains a manufacturing country that's able to produce vehicles of every type in the only wholly British owned motor manufacturer.
We need to launch this campaign from today with all the seriousness and all the determination that we know is possible from our great trade union movement.
And the slogan has got to be: Not a job is lost in Leyland. No work is transferred from one factorv to another. And we'll take whatever measures are necessary, to ensure that doesn't happen We need to say to the Confed executive that we require, without any qualification, the fullest support of the our trade union movement. Campaign And we'll say that we'll wholeheartedly support the campaign ‚Leyland and to save jobs in Leyland. Thank you.
Socialist Challenge 18 October 1979 Page 8 show-jumping round the world. Leyland's sponsorship of his certainly kept himself in the news of late. Most recently the popular press has gone to town on the announcement that British Leyland Range Rover will be sponsoring Captain Mark Phillips — famous royal spouse — to go the royal equestrian followed conveniently on announcements in the press that Princess Anne would not be able to compete in the … Moscow Olympics as she can't afford an adequate horse!
What an outcry there's been. Two Labour MPs have already put down questions about it for the first day of Parliament. It obviously isa bit rich of Edwardes to rub in his announced 26,000 redundancies in British Leyland with a £20,000 a year hand-out to royalty. £20,000, the outery should be about the redu Many Labour MPs, and their counterparts in ti would rather ignore the redundancies - after al appointed Edwardes to head Leyland, and 1 bureaucrats gave him and his plan a vote of co Leyland workers have been paying the price e On 5 October an 'emergency committe Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineerin (all the unions involved in engineering) met wit management for eight hours. At the end they principle to the redundancies and closures.
But an outery from the shop stewards led to : demonstration in London on 9 October, attended by well over a thousand engineers fro ABINGOON
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SAVE THI MG