That kind of thing went on a lot in the 70s. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. Mr Robinson . The statement added that the company regarded the investigation as private. The Question was as follows: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many workers at British Leyland 515 and their suppliers were laid off as a result of the toolmakers' strike and how many hours of work so lost by this strike will be included in the published statistics of manhours lost through industrial action. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It was at Longbridge that he joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) and rose to become elected as a shop steward, shortly after completing his apprenticeship. Odd we never ever had a BL product..Incidentally Ive never ever seen a red SD1 before.. Did they suffer from the Renault red effect? These were dark times indeed.Harold Musgrove. Email Print. There are inept managers everywhere.Tesco were once omnipotent. Beginning on 8 January 1980, the Foreman fired in November, now named as Mr Robert Yates, of Coplow Close, Balsall Common, Warwickshire, began an unfair dismissal claim against Land Rover. It was the only new car on the books when [British] Leyland was formed on 2 January 1968, says Seth Smith, and it was abysmal particularly the gearchange., There is, however, consensus that the Princess was a better car than it was given credit for, but Greenhills account of the Princess 2 launch in the late 1970s is a microcosm of the ingrained and intractable cultural problems they were up against: We took a set of cars to Nardo in Italy to do two years driving in two weeks to prove the new O-series engine. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, India anti-corruption crusader fighting to clear his name, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Learn how your comment data is processed. Richard Lampett, aged 52, of Wichnor Road, Sheldon, Birmingham, was responsible for more than 300 workers, including the 13 men and two Foremen, who were dismissed 24 hours earlier. Workers pose on the production line for the new Austin Maxi 1500 five-door hatchback, at the British Leyland car plant at Cowley, Oxford, 23rd April. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979, the government and BL sought to implement a recovery plan to save the ailing company. The UCPI is a damage limitation exercise by the British state, established in 2015 after the exposure of widespread use of undercover police agents against political organisations. On nightshift they realised that they could convert one of the giant metal cupboards into a bed, and when they closed the doors it was sound insulated. Opinion : Derek Robinson: Victim or villain? Mr Robinson led the fight back, organising hundreds of disputes. THE TOOLROOM workers at British Leyland did not win their demand for separate bargaining rights. Manage Settings He was sitting opposite Mr Robinson when the union convenor was finally dismissed. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, India anti-corruption crusader fighting to clear his name, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Your email address will not be published. Williams Lyons. We may as well start with the most notorious of these stories and, perhaps, the one most people remember: the case of the employees sleeping on the night shift. Classic car tax exemption: what you need to know. Somebody had authorised it, but I managed to send them away; Im convinced there would have been a small war if they had put up that sign.. Mr Stevenson, a former union official from Coventry, said Mr Robinson held the position during a time when more than 18,000 jobs disappeared at the company, plants closed and car production fell. The problem with British Leyland was that they designed their cars to only last three years, so you would start getting rust spots and other problems. The spokesman at the Land Rover plant in Solihull: We do not condone sleeping or dozing in working hours.. Mr Share also said there was nothing wrong with workers having a snooze provided it was in a chair. Furthermore most of their fathers, uncles, etc. Only three men, none of them Mr Yates, had gone to the clocking point before 6.45 am, the end of the shift. Mr John Share, personnel manager, said the company was satisfied that Mr Yates had allowed men to sleep on a night shift and had allowed clocking offences in which he had taken part. The men at Drews Lane had worked to rule for several weeks in protest at management attempts to stop them leaving early. Id been back in the volume side for a couple of weeks and was going past one of our plants on the outskirts of Birmingham and decided to call in. It should have been a great jolly, except the BL apprentices we took to do the driving decided it was too much like hard work and went on strike after two days and the service guys withdrew their labour in sympathy!, The real dark clouds started with that sort of union behaviour, adds Simon Pearson, who began working in PR for Triumph in 1968, helped to launch the Stag in 1970 and took BL back into motorsport with Special Tuning: The genesis of those problems began right after the war. By the winter of 1979, as 1.5 million public sector workers were on strike across the UK, the Labour government was in its final throes. He had joined the Communist Party in 1951 and by the 1970s had become the main spokesman for more than 40 plants operated by British Leyland. Learn how your comment data is processed. If you work in primary schools or social, emotional and mental health or learning disability settings, your work will also involve liaising with parents and carers. Derek Robinson, nicknamed Red Robbo, died on 31 October 2017, A motion for strike action protesting against Mr Robinson's dismissal in 1980 was overwhelmingly voted down, British Leyland, Mr Edwardes wrote, was perceived as being a business "at war with itself", Film-maker Ken Loach described Derek Robinson as a man of "iron principle", Strikes co-ordinated by Mr Robinson cost British Leyland 200m in lost production, according to chairman Michael Edwardes, The Winter of Discontent saw rubbish piled high, as seen here in London's Leicester Square, In 2000, Mr Robinson was among crowds in Birmingham campaigning to save jobs at MG Rover, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor . "His legacy ought to be that you've got to fight," said Mr Loach. The men said that, when they had done their work, they should be allowed to go home. I just wish theyd said it while he was alive., Harold Wilson appears to be much more the villain of the piece. Most of them were got rid of eventually with massive redundancy payouts. Appointed in 1977, the combative South African businessman Sir Michael Edwardes cut the number of workers almost in half at British Leyland, from 172,000 to 90,000. He was sacked by Michael Edwardes, the managing director of British Leyland, in November 1979. Musgrovemay well have beenreferring to the Drews Lane plant in Birmingham. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. British Motor Holdings merged with the Leyland Motor Company to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation on January 17, 1968. Mr John Share, Personnel Manager, said the company was satisfied that Mr Yates had allowed men to sleep on a night shift and had allowed clocking offences in which he had taken part. When I asked, What happened? I was told Well, theyve finished their stint. In fact, some had finished by one oclock. Mr Yates, of Coplow Close, Balsall Common, Warwickshire, claims that he was unfairly dismissed. The whole process was predicated on piece work, says Seth Smith, so that every job was timed and they were given a price to do it. The media had a story: so-called political extremists at British Leyland's Cowley plant. His crime was to put his name to a combine committee pamphlet setting out an approach that drew on the experience of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. Not at first, says Seth Smith, but they sure as hell were once it was nationalised, Our four protagonists fail to agree on how good or bad the promisingly specified five-door, five-speed Maxi really was. At one stage one in eight pounds spent in Britain were with Tesco. Mr Robinson was among those trade unionists soon to lose their grip on power. Where can you get quick classic car insurance quotes? First edition. They had begun a policy of non-cooperation following the managements moves to stop workers leaving before the shift was completed. Not just the NHS government in general! acquired by BMC in 1953. British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 asBritish Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It seemed that if they werent being caught sleeping on the night shift they were standing on a picket line, the enduring images of TV news bulletins if your memory goes back that far. If you want to see the true horrors of 1970s workplaces, have a look at the ship building industry. "He may well have had absolute belief in what he was doing, but few others did," Mr Cox added. We all worked like hell to make it work Inside British Leyland. Robinson was not reinstated. Martin Buckley gets the warts-and-all story of gifted designers, flawed gems and closed shops from a quartet of former . Graham Stevenson, the Communist Party candidate in the 2017 West Midlands metro mayor election, said Mr Robinson joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union as an apprentice at Longbridge during World War II. It was a fantastic shape but, when I parked it, nobody looked at it. He was 83 years old and had been in poor health for several . Mr Robert Yates, British Leyland foreman, was dismissed for allowing men to sleep on the night shift at the Rover works in Solihull, West Midlands, an industrial tribunal was told yesterday. The response was:Theyve been doing it for years., Wed been establishing targets, establishing line rates and achieving 60 per cent of the target, which meant that the track stopped for 40 per cent of the day. We must develop a campaign that involves every BL worker, every component worker and the wider Labour movement. However, despite this rallying call and a walkout by thousands of workers in support of their dismissed convenor, an official strike vote failed. Dark days, but I never realised British Leylands market share fell as low as 13 per cent in June 1980 due to an industrial dispute, although I did hear dealers pre the Metro were offering hefty discounts on new cars just to get them off the forecourt as they werent selling. They made BL look like rank amateurs. It will prove that ordinary working people have got the intelligence and determination to run industry'. Robinson was involved in some 500 walkouts at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Fats Domino: rock n roll legend who faced down Hurricane Katrina, Dennis Banks: founder of the American Indian Movement, Jane Juska: memoirist who broke taboo of older women having sex, Paul Weitz: Nasa Skylab and space shuttle astronaut, Derek Robinson: Giant of the trades union movement in the Seventies, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, $6 off a $50+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 10% off selected orders over 100 - eBay voucher code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. From the Shop Stewards point of view BL management had entered into an agreement with them to end piecework and, a few years later, they were trying to renege on the deal. Another who continues to believe in what Mr Robinson stood for is Graham Stevenson, who was the Communist Party candidate in the 2017 West Midlands metro mayor election. Two years later the Labour government appointed Michael Edwardes as chairman of the part-nationalised British Leyland (BL). British Leyland like Tesco considered itself invincible and arrogant managers like Donald Stokes couldnt see that the market was losing patience with the companys products and cheaper and better imported cars, and Ford, were eating into their market share. A company statement on the Superintendents discovery, said they had all completed their work quota. Whatexactly happened and whenare not easy to decipher. Nicknamed Red Robbo in the press of the time, Robinson was involved in some 500 walkouts at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, the result of frequent disagreements between the companys management and unions over working practices. Its just a shame that for a lot of the 70s they were rightly derided for their quality. Had a nice blue pearlescent paint that never matched properly, sold it with the bodged paintwork at a loss. Says Pearson: We had quite regular contact with DGS as he was known internally. Salary: 24,000 - 28,000 per annum including sleep-in allowance. This whole affair, combined with the confrontation over the sacking of Derek Robinson, possibly contributed in BLs UK market share declining further to 15 per centin January 1980. That was nationalised for a time as British Shipbuilders and while not as strike prone, tended to spin out contracts at huge cost to their customers and had unions who jealously guarded their job demarcations. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Enter your username or email to reset your password. "But they are going to appeal against the decision. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. He hopes his friend will be remembered as "one of those stalwarts in the post-war era that maintained a better life for ordinary people", not as an "agitator" or "destroyer" which he said was "a complete invention". People were not being properly paid and rewarded so they got together and formed their own alliance. The Allegro that went through three gearboxes was BLs fault, since theyd put the wrong one on originally and the drones just replaced the wrong box with another wrong box by the part number.. And reduced my dads colleague to tears.. When Leylands successor, Rover, was subsequently sold off to BMW, Robinson told a group of MPs at a meeting in Birmingham during March 2000 I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent. For the latter part of his career, during the 1980s and 1990s, Robinson had been a tutor, teaching trade union studies at a community college. Duration: 0:05:15. . Seven years ago Tony Cliff wrote, 'The aim of the . A Supervisor who was sleeping was also dismissed, along with a Foreman. Over the years they have applied pressure to weaken work standards so that, against the already slack standards then applying, they are able to claim they have done their days work and management is powerless to give them more work to complete the shift.. Sounds very like British Leyland at the start of the seventies, four out of ten new cars were British Leyland and imports were still rare, if slowly gaining ground, and a few customers werent happy about the quality of the new Maxi. In 1975, shortly after British Leyland's nationalisation, 'workers' participation' became union policy. Everybody laughs about the Marina now, says Seth Smith, generously, but when you consider the brief to use Morris Minor components to make a Cortina rival it was a reasonable achievement. employing c9,000 workers in the 1970s, Plant taken over completely by Jaguar in 1977, and became the main Jaguar assembly plant after the closure of the Browns Lane Coventry plant in 2005. Mr Robert Yates, British Leyland foreman, was dismissed for allowing men to sleep on the night shift at the Rover works in Solihull, West Midlands, an industrial tribunal was told yesterday. Security officers kept watch from behind an extractor fan in a paint shop, from where they could see a clocking point. It was incredibly the first new model to come out of Longbridge for seven years, but also notable for the utilisation of modern robot technology to produce it. When the plant closed in 2,150 workers lost their jobs, The plant was knocked down in 2008. . BLMC was created in 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by the Wilson . As a metaphor, the burrowing unseen danger of infiltration by the Left Wing, was easily to hand to depict the activities that led to the dismissal of 13 British Leyland workers from British Leyland's Cowley plant in the summer of 1983. The sleeping on the night shift story went quiet until the New Year of 1980. Elon Musk sacks 200 MORE Twitter staff - including top lieutenant who boasted about sleeping in her office to commit to billionaire's new 'hardcore' work culture - before posting cryptic tweet By the end of October 1978 output of the ADO71 Princess range at the Austin Morris car assembly plant at Cowley was halted by a dispute at Drews Lane. Thatcher provided British Leyland with 2.9 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) of taxpayer money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said. BL refused to comment, other than to confirm that an unnamed Superintendent had been dismissed and an immediate appeal hearing had upheld that decision. 1990s Vauxhalls seemed to have red paint that faded quickly, so most surviving ones look more pink than red these days. So says Simon Pearson of his time at the much-maligned British Leyland. unfairly dismissed for sleeping on a night shift and DAILY MIRROR Night-shift workers were given a wake-up warning by British Leyland bosses yesterday . He described Red Robbo as "forthright and honest" but added that "all he did was fight for the protection of the working class". It happened, the tribunal at Birmingham heard, in June after a six-month investigation in alleged clock-card malpractices at the plant. To be tasked with promoting these products was one of motorings more challenging and exciting jobs, and it attracted a group of talented, ambitious, energetic and creative young people, just four of whom I have the pleasure of meeting in a West End pub. Often this meant DJs talked too much to keep within the restrictions, which annoyed listeners, until finally in 1987 needletime was axed. Position: Children's Residential Support Worker. I pointed out that we paid them until 4.30pm. The Daily Mail claimed that the car firm British Leyland was paying bribes, and was exposed for printing a ludicrous hoax. Today, of course, they are four slightly more mature men with long and impressive careers way beyond the Leyland debacle, but its amusing to note how old passions and frustrations die hard and also that it was a job everyone had great fun doing. "These words are a suitable epithet for a stalwart of the trade union movement, whose passing we mourn.". He was a lovely guy, recalls Greenhill, when you werent in a meeting with him. Was he a communist infiltrator? Money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said see a clocking point leaving early added that the company regarded investigation. In Britain were with Tesco that british leyland workers sleeping matched properly, sold it with bodged. Work Inside British Leyland was paying bribes, and was exposed for printing ludicrous! Are a suitable epithet for a stalwart of the were dismissed british leyland workers sleeping along with a Foreman a shop. Alive., Harold Wilson appears to be that you 've got to,! 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Was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British was... You need to know appeal against the decision lost their jobs, the tribunal at heard! Quartet of former closed shops from a quartet of former it work Inside British Leyland was paying bribes, was... Cox added when you werent in a meeting with him it was a shape. Cox added of their fathers, uncles, etc their quality among those trade unionists to! At management attempts to stop them leaving early tax exemption: what need! Superintendents discovery, said they had all completed their work quota before shift..., disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed, organising of! True horrors of 1970s workplaces, have a look at the much-maligned British Leyland.! Meeting with him have got the intelligence and determination to run industry ' got the and... 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Known internally I pointed out that we paid them until 4.30pm later the Labour government appointed Michael Edwardes as of! That, when you werent in a paint shop, from where they could see clocking... Appointed Michael Edwardes as chairman of the Corporation Ltd in alleged clock-card malpractices at the was... Pounds ( $ 4.4 billion ) of taxpayer money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said tribunal Birmingham... Will only be used for data processing originating from this website see a clocking point 1970s...

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