BL's bid to vet workers' private lives
Socialist Organiser1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
LAST THURSDAY, 3rd, at a works conference held in the Cowley Assembly Plant, BL management again refused to recognise Alan Thornett in any senior capacity should he be re-elected in the elections due in December.
Alan Thornett, well known as a member of the Workers' Socialist League and as part of the militant leadership in the Assembly Plant, has remained victimised for over seven years now.
In April 1974, BL refused to recognise him in any trade union capacity. After a month-long strike, BL restored his recognition as a sectional shop steward, but continued to refuse to recognise him as deputy convenor.
[Photograph. Caption: Alan Thornett]
For the past four years he has been repeatedly elected deputy convenor by secret ballot of the workers in the plant. Each time BL has refused to recognise the results of the ballot.
Last year, BL personnel director Geoffrey Armstrong gave an undertaking at national conference that BL would recognise Thornett should he be elected in December 1981, providing they had not been able to establish a legitimate case against him in the meanwhile.
He gave an undertaking that complaints would be dealt with as they arose, and no dossier would be compiled.
Now, a dossier has been compiled — and issues brought in which create dangerous precedents for the trade union movement.
BL are quoting as a major part of their case two incidents which happened outside of working hours and are therefore nothing whatever to do with BL.
The first is Alan Thornett's presence on the picket line at Adwest Engineering in Reading on July 14th 1980 — during the works annual holiday. After that picket Thornett was convicted of obstructing the highway.
The second incident, also last year, took place late on a Friday night after a meeting of Oxford Trades Council.
Thornett was convicted of giving a black eye to Mick Soans, the then president of the Trades Council. An argument had arisen after Soans, a leading member of the Communist Party, called Thornett a 'scab'.
The other part of BL's case is 13 strikes which have taken place in the transport department, where Alan Thornett is one of the shop stewards, since October 1980.
These particular allegations will be dealt with at a separate conference because the AUEW is involved. But management have made no effort to substantiate the allegations except to say that they "hold the accredited representatives responsible".
TGWU Oxford district secretary David Buckle, leading the trade union delegation at the works conference, told management that what employees do in their own time has got nothing whatsoever to do with BL. Their position was totally unacceptable and a failure to agree was registered.
The issue will now be the subject of a national conference.
Making the activities of employees outside of working hours subject matter for the BL disciplinary procedure is a very serious development indeed, particularly since BL is the pace-setter for wide sections of the employers.
BL and their South African chairman now want to control the private lives of their employees in Britain as they are able to do successfully in plants in India and in the South African apartheid state.
The management of the Cowley Assembly Plant want to go back to the days when the plant was run by Billy Morris — who had workers in the office for displaying Labour Party posters in their windows, or sacked them for joining a union.