Cowley Strike
Socialist Organiser1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
THE 250 trim shop workers at BL's Cowley Assembly Plant voted to continue their two week old strike at a mass meeting on the morning of the 15th.
The strike has closed down two production lines – the Rover and the Acclaim – and has laid off 1100 other workers.
It has been provoked by the imminent ending of Acclaim production in Cowley which is being switched to Longbridge and programme reductions on both the Rover and the Maestro. Workers made surplus are to be switched to the new LM11 model, which is a derivative of the Maestro.
Management insisted on total control of the move, with no seniority applying. This has been the situation in most of the plant for some time, but not in the trim shop where the seniority agreement has been largely maintained.
The breaking down of seniority agreements has been one of the major achievements of management in the recent period. Without the protection of such agreements, job allocation can be used to break up trade union organisation, isolate shop stewards, prevent militants from becoming stewards and victimise militants by putting them on the worst jobs.
The trim workers demand for seniority is therefore a major challenge to management strategy and potentially a major fightback against management attacks.
Management did shift their ground a bit in the course of the strike but it amounts to no more than vague promises which they refuse even to put in writing.