Cowley climbdown
Socialist Organiser1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
MANAGEMENT at the BL Cowley Assembly Plant have backed down — for now — on their plans to cut Relaxation Allowance (RA) breaks by 10 minutes a shift.
Mass meetings last week voted to counter the 10-minute cut by reducing the working day and night by 15 minutes, i.e. clocking off 15 minutes early. Management responded by calling in the officials, who agreed to attend the conference only if BL withdrew their plans to implement the ten minute cut unilaterally from January 11.
Management agreed, and a conference was held on Tuesday 12th.
At the conference, they withdrew their proposals on the RA, and are talking about some other form of 'funding' the reduction in the working week from 40 to 39 hours under the national engineering agreement. A further conference is to be held as we go to press.
Management say that if the unions fail to agree, they will announce a new date for the implementation of their new proposals.
The sell-out of the RA strike at Longbridge is the background to all these moves.
At the Cowley Body Plant, management are talking about the Longbridge agreement, but have not yet mentioned an implementation date.