account of his five years at British Leyland is based on "Great Man' theory of the history. It tells a story of Edwardes, alone and unaided, took on unions, defeated 'disruptive established management's right to manage, and saved BL for the nation.
The catalogue 'success' is indeed striking. When he left the company, 90,000 jobs had been axed, (Speke, Canley, Solihull, AEC Southall) closed, plus a number of ancillary plants and BL had all engines and gear-boxes.
In addition, Derek Robinson stewards organisations reduced to wages had been slashed and sweat shop conditions introduced the shop floor.
To mark this achievement, Micheal Edwardes was given a knighthood in James Callaghan's resignation honours list.
Basking in honours awarded by a prime minister placency is understandable when he Dad.
'And so I leave the hot seat with more to be done but with a feeling that the foundations are well and truly laid; and that the continuing persistence of the Board... will complete the job.' The Cowley management's right speed-up by dictat complacency is inapprodnate From the Brink is not the end of the story. It closes a chapter.
When Edwardes courtesy of the Labour government, the company had the strongest and most extensive shop organisations in the country. He soon is of his producing on birthday comagainst shows that such Back came. to BL, stewards federation stewards.
petitive signing it.
tacking Voted degree to undermined.
with Fords, austerity fuelled problems.
to right Photo.
concerns.
wardes had With plant bargaining replaced by alternative to the For Edwardes the next problem Terry Wing hard.
Minister Jim of Speke early of the TR7, «You have said that Surely on that Edwardes The trade union leaders were on a Under the were the main policy, en. couraging workers to scab on strikers and threatening to expel the BL tool room workers when they struck in the summer of 1978.
By the time Edwardes came to the decisive confrontation the workforce was softened up. The company had established the practise of taking its major plans to bailots of the shop floor over the heads of the stewards, with the support Unio.
In September 1979 the third Edwardes plan was announced — 25,000 jobs and 13 plants to go. The ConShipbuilding Engineering Unions put to a ballot of the workforce. Of the 80 percent who voted, 87 percent supported the company. The ground was prepared for & decisive « confrontation with The BL combine committee produced a pamphlet attacking the plan. Weak and ineffective though it was (it started from 'our vested interest to ensure that Britain remains a comproducer of manufactured goods) Robinson was dismissed for The pamphlet was a pretext for atthe shop stewards. It had hardly been seen on the shop floor. On the day Robbo was sacked I found 500 of them in the stewards room at Solihull which the convenor had not bothered to distribute. A handful of us gave them out free.
The AUEW headed off the growing walk-outs by establising a com. mittee of enquiry into the sacking. Robinson stayed sacked.
Despite a vigorous defence campaign a Longbridge mass meeting voted overwhelmingly not to strike in his defence. It was a symbol of the which the shop stewards the shop floor had been Although it was the • middle of the 'Winter of Discontent', the lorry drivers, public sector workers all taking ac tion, the response to the sacking was confined to a militant minority.
In the face of mass redundancies and the repeated refusals of the national leadership to lead, the members refused to follow their traditional leaders. Instead, as Edwardes put it. 'the employees as a whole followed te managemenl BL was not alone. As the effects of the world recession combined with governel imposing the militancy which had stellards oreggrations for nearly 2p the growth of the years, proved inadequate for the new As has been demonstrated time and again since, sectoral militancy is not enough. The rank and file leaders of the class need to be able to put forward solutions which appear credible the workers and can defeat the wing leaders. This means cross-sectoral organisation which puts the key national questions around which the battle in the Labour Party is being fought to the fore of its After the Robinson sackings EdLa cake walk The BL workers has been defeated less by Edwardes than the sell-outs of the trade leaders the weakness of the stewards. When the chips were down, we were unable to confront the leadership's betrayals.
"Supermike's' reputation rests on leaders. He got knighthood. In fairness, so should Duffy and Moss Evans. No doubt they will in due course. As the Cowley strike has shown, they are tryBut as the militancy of the Cowley strikers has also shown, it is far too for either BL management or the Labour traitors to rest on their laurels. Provided that militants learn that defeating the labour traitors is not a task that can be accomplished by any plant or section on its own and his successors in BL and elsewhere can be defeated Edwardes. Collins. $9.95. Back from the Brink. Sir Michael