Getting the 1984 Austin Rover strike off the ground
Socialist Viewpoint1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
IT was hard to escape the feeling in the run-up to the current Austin Rover strike that it would be smothered at birth by the national officials of the various unions — as in recent years.
Since the rejection of the offer — 10% over 2 years, with strings — there have been repeated hurdles placed in front of the strike. Having held the vote solidly in favour of strike action at two rounds of mass meetings, TGWU National Officer Grenville Hawley announced to the next meeting of the Joint Negotiating Committee "Well, now we have a problem!" He went so far at that meeting to offer the company that he would recommend acceptance if they simply brought forward 2% of next year's increase — giving 7% this year and 3% next! (The sell-out of the solid strike at Jaguar has taken place on an almsot identical formula, with workers being fobbed off with a £1.20 increase from money they would have had next year anyway.)
The JNC called a delegate Conference to take the final decision. For many militants that seemed to signal the end of the strike — since the delegate conference is weighted 3-1 in favour of the 10,000 minority who voted against the strike at mass meetings, and against the 15,000 majority who voted in favour. (A disproportionate number of delegates come from small plants or skilled sections who have opposed the strike.)
To everyone's surprise, however, the delegates on this occasion respected the majority vote and decided to proceed with the strike.
But Grenville Hawley did not want to leave it at that. He wanted yet another round of mass meetings. He must have known that to take a third vote on the same issue would have brought a rejection of strike action — since the workforce would lose any confidence that their leaders were prepared to fight the case.
Fortunately Hawley was defeated, and the conference voted 75-50 not only to proceed with the strike, but not to have any further mass meetings until after an acceptable offer is on the table.
This was an important breakthrough for Austin Rover workers. Always in the past there have been continual mass meetings — again and again, until one vote was lost, and management took advantage.
But the company were not willing to lose such opportunities this time. They began an immediate, orchestrated campaign to challenge the legality of mass meeting votes, and at the same time to seek to discredit the votes that were taken.
This tactic had been used effectively by employers in the second of the two recent dock strikes — with the mass media thundering that there had been "confusion" at the Tilbury mass meeting, and claiming workers had not understood the resolution.
The same blatant interference into democratic procedures took shape in Austin Rover, with management collaborating outrageously with the local press to fabricate "news" that might discredit the vote.
In the Cowley Assembly Plant, the mass meeting vote was a clear 3-2 majority to strike. Nobody claimed otherwise. But management immmediately sent foremen along the tracks — to urge workers to strike against the mass meeting decision, and call for a secret ballot! Contrary to the usual threats to sack strikers, management offered to pay anyone who took strike action their normal wages! Several small groups stopped work as a result of this pressure, and were met by convenors.
Management then called for a mass meeting — giving the impression it had been called by the unions. Several hundred workers turned up: but when they found it was addressed by the plant manager, they bombarded the platform with stones and other missiles.
At the same time reporters were invited on to the plant — in another breach with custom. They were encouraged to interview workers who were against the strike decision. But their reports were subsequently edited to exclude any quotes from workers who supported the strike. The coverage in the Oxford Mail was tailored to give the impression that a majority were calling for a secret ballot. Similar distortions occurred at Longbridge.
Oxford NUJ has since lodged a bitter protest to the Oxford Mail against the manufacturing of "news" in this way.
Since then, management propaganda has regularly claimed that the "majority" of Austin Rover workers are against the strike.
But the action has remained strong in Cowley and Longbridge — the two plants which control all production of finished cars and employ 20,000 of the 28,000 Austin Rover workers. Elsewhere there has been a return to work, despite the majority mandate for strike action. A significant exception has been the skilled sections at Cowley, who voted against the strike but are now out.
An indication of the strength of the strike in Cowley and Longbridge has been the vote by electricians to defy their Executive instruction, and remain on strike.
The decision of Austin Rover management to go to the High Court for an injunction under the Tebbit legislation requiring a ballot before an official strike can be lawfully called was an attempt to intimidate the unions — most especially their full-time officials.
The High Court granted the injunction, and ordered all the strikers back to work by 6.00 that same night. Only the EETPU responded. They and the AUEW had been the only leaders to attend the court, and their cases were adjourned for 3 days.
Then came the surprise Court ruling against Austin Rover — declaring that since both unions had made it clear that the strike was not official, the legislation did not apply.
Although this threw Austin Rover management off their stride, and avoided the issue for a few more days, the implications are very dangerous. To accept such a ruling, or — as suggested in the following day's Morning Star — to seek to exploit it as a "loophole" in the anti-union laws, would amount simply to an aceptance of the law, since it would accept that strikes held without ballots would have to be "unofficial". This would mean that the union leders would be called upon to denounce every strike in order to avoid being dragged into the courts!
Austin Rover are now seeking High Court action for "contempt" against the other unions. It is crucial that these unions — centrally the TGWU — refuse to follow the AUEW and EETPU in disowning their members. They were right not to attend the Court, and they must now declare the strike official, and confront the law.
Such a decision would not only be in the best interests of Austin Rover workers and the trade union movement as a whole: it would also widen the much-needed second front against the government which can help the miners win a victory aganst the NCB and Thatcher's laws.