Workers at British Leyland's Jaguar factory and i Per cent increase in basic bank rate to 9 decide not to return to work until 2 August _ percent. Photography James Page/LAT. Sell Your Car On Honest John Classics For Free. The statement added that the company regarded the investigation as private. The men were found tucked up in sleeping bags when management swooped on the priming shop at the Range Rover plant in Solihull, near Birmingham. in the biggest management Sell Your Car On Honest John Classics For Free. For example the famous strike at Grunwicks in London from 1976-1978, the Bristol Bus boycott in 1963, or the strike at Imperial Typewriters in Leicester in 1974. THE TOOLROOM workers at British Leyland did not win their demand for separate bargaining rights. In November of that year BL sacked Robinson for supporting the pamphlet titled A Trade Union Response to the Edwardes Plan, which criticised the plans proposals and the companys management. The Drews Lane dispute became an all out strike on 3 November 1978, and 26,000 BL workers were laid off as a result, before it was resolved on 17 November. 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. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. It was about two oclock in the afternoon. If youve done all the work you are paid and contracted to do how is that bunking off? This support saved brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini from . 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. This means employees can complete their daily stint, or work quota, and then go home at any time from 3.00pm onwards, but still be paid to the end of the shift. 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. The British Leyland era at Longbridge became a byword for wildcat walkouts, union militancy and industrial chaos - and helped clear the path to political power for Margaret Thatcher. It was a fantastic shape but, when I parked it, nobody looked at it. "He's seen as a troublemaker, someone who resisted attempts to modernise," he said. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. Perhaps more importantly, the rational economy, which includes companies like ICJ, Racal and . From Our Correspondent Birmingham. 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. 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. We ask Birmingham: How can bus services improve in the city? Similar incidents had occurred before and appropriate action had been taken. Then, on 16 November 1979, another BL plant was in the news for similar reasons. Belated attempts to set up acceptable new output targets had been resisted by the Shop Stewards. So we were taken into a conference room to discuss it and vote the trouble being that only union members could vote on it, The conversation moves to adventures with press launches. DAILY MIRRORLeyland Dozers SackedBy Chris Hampson, Fourteen night shift men caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant have been sacked , a wife claimed last night. And apart from the stupid steering wheel, the Allegro was pretty good, and a lot less labourintensive to produce than the 1100/1300., Was the UK press quicker to stick the boot in when things went wrong than they were in, say, France? Is the 1990 Ford Escort Bonus a classic car? E 21 Government approves 30 million as first tranche of 100 million investment funds to British British Leyland s Rover workers at Solihull Leyland. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The idea was that they should be able to make triple time: do each job in a third of the time allowed which meant that by half past two everyone would pack up and bugger off home!, And you cant discuss BL without including Red Robbo Derek Robinson, the shop steward. Only British Rail and its curly-edged sandwiches ranked lower in the publics estimation. I was involved in hire and lease sales, he explains, and if someone wanted an XJ6 or a Stag, I just told them that they had to take half a dozen Marinas as well., Greenhill worked at BMC/BL for 13 years, starting as a Technical sales apprentice in 1966 and finishing up as Jaguars marketing manager when the SIII XJ was launched. What fire was my friends answer to which the policeman pointed to the mess of the building next door and the thirty fire engines surrounding it! The demise of the firm was nothing to do with the design and engineering. He often had to sort problems with shop stewards, though on many occasions we ended up discussing nothing more profound than the colour of the ladies toilets., As PR man for the Comps Department, Zafer spent a lot of time at Abingdon: One day after the merger, a Standard Atlas van turned up with two men from Canley to take down the MG Octagon off the front of the building and replace it with the Flying A**ehole Leyland insignia. Stories from those at the coalface. 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. AROnline Keith Adams 2001-2022 - please refer to the 'Terms of use' pages. Only three men, none of them Mr Yates, had gone to the clocking point before 6.45 am, the end of the shift. acquired by BMC in 1953. A spokesman said that they would consider taking action against anyone found dozing at work. Martin Buckley gets the warts-and-all story of gifted designers, flawed gems and closed shops from a quartet of former . Mr Robinson worked as an engineering apprentice during the Second World War, progressing on to become shop steward at a plant in Longbridge. It wasnt just at BL. 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. Tributes have been paid to former British Leyland worker and trade unionist Derek Robinson, who has died, aged 90. Had a nice blue pearlescent paint that never matched properly, sold it with the bodged paintwork at a loss. 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. 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. A plan by the unions to fight for a mass-volume car manufacturing was truncated when Robinson was sacked by British Leyland in November 1979. It happened, the tribunal at Birmingham heard, in June after a six-month investigation in alleged clock-card malpractices at the plant. Kearsley has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cars, down to the colour names and options, combined with a strong urge to save these underdogs. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Prince Andrew offered Frogmore Cottage - reports, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Bieber cancels remaining Justice world tour dates, Kobe Bryant widow wins $29m settlement from LA, Trump lashes out at Murdoch over vote fraud case. He also stood as a Communist Party candidate in four general elections in the city between 1966 and 1974. In this article DAVE LYDDON analyses the forces at work in British Leyland. Mr Robinson, one of the most famous trade unionists of the 1970s, was dubbed Red Robbo by the media. How did you not hear that he said to which my friend blatantly lied I had ear muffs on we were grinding most of the night! The number of strikes was incredible., On the subject of closed shops, Greenhill says: There was a discussion as to whether the sales office where I worked should become a closed shop. No mention was made of any disciplinary action against the workers. A communist, he had led 523 walkouts at the Birmingham car plant during a 30-month period, gaining the nickname Red Robbo from journalists and becoming an increasingly divisive national figure. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. Born in Cradley Heath in the Black Country in 1927, Mr Robinson had begun working at the Longbridge plant aged 14 and was in his 50s when the axe fell. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. Mr Robinson was involved in an estimated 500 disputes at Longbridge. A little later, through a window, he saw two men, naked from the waist up. DeSantis won't say he's running. Position: Children's Residential Support Worker. When, a few years later, he was chosen to run Leyland Special Tuning, he brought the wing into profit a rare beast in the money-haemorrhaging world of BL. He was dressed. Shop stewards representing various tool room shops meet to discuss how they can support the British Leyland shop and propose a series of one day token strikes. Learn how your comment data is processed. The tabloid paid the equivalent of 75,000 to buy letters which not only . The general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, said: Derek Robinson was a dedicated lifelong trade unionist who fought, as convenor, for the rights and future of the then British Leyland workforce at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham during the 1970s. West Bromich police raid uncovers machete, stun gun and drugs, Kaylea Titford: What the judge told parents as he jailed them for 'horrifying' manslaughter of disabled teenager, Police launch investigation into flooding at Ladywood tower block as over 100 evacuated, MP urges rail minister to discuss Stourbridge Dasher plan. Here, after all, was the worlds fourth-biggest car maker building the planets most complete and ambitious range of vehicles. 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 The public believed the brand was the cheapest and Tesco seemed poised to conquer every field of commerce. Family Cottage near Leyland, Lancashire. Mr Robinson . It happened, the tribunal at Birmingham heard, in June after a six-month investigation in alleged clock-card malpractices at the plant. A spokesman said that they would Mr Arthur Scargill yesterday pledged the support of Yorkshire miners for the reinstatement of Mr Derek Robinson the shop stewards' By Edward Townsend BL's controversial 2m "Buy British" campaign, initially aimed at new car buyers, has now been directed at dealers. BL has delayed implementation of its plans for the MG factory at Abingdon in Oxfordshire because of a probable offer from the consortium. What's the best type of insurance for my 30+ year old Volvo? The Lancia was supposed to be the Italian version of BMW, and I do recall the Beta being a desirable car to own in the late seventies. Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar Cars Ltd., died in his sleep this morning at his home near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. It employed 200,000 people and was the fifth largest . 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. A firebrand union leader and former British Leyland worker has died aged 90. 13 November 1979. They had found that double the recommended number of body panels could be hung on the paint conveyor. Where can you get quick classic car insurance quotes? Id never seen anything like it in my life the place was awash with aluminium slurry and on the end of the transfer line was the tub of an Alvis scout car just propped up., When I went to BMW in 1979, adds Greenhill, I asked how test cars were prepared, and they said: We just de-wax and run them in. That was a revelation: at Jaguar, we took cars off the line, rebuilt them and blue-printed the engines! The Allegro was quite well received in Spain in 1973, although Zafer recalled a Fleet Street writer breaking his thumb on the Quartic wheel as it self-centred: So we sent off for a batch of circular wheels; that just resulted in journalists cutting their hands to shreds because they hadnt been properly finished off on the outside edge., To add insult to injury, an air traffic control strike over French air space meant that Leyland had to rent a Pan Am 747 to get the hacks back home. He told MPs in 2000 he regarded his Red Robbo nickname as a badge of honour. Robinson was born in Cradley Heath, near Birmingham, in 1927, to a family of chainmakers. A shame really as improvements to the Maxi, Princess and Allegro had made these cars as good as many of their European rivals and certainly British Leyland never had to endure the sort of scandal that was engulfing Lancia at the time, where poor rustproofing was causing the engines to fall out of relatively new cars. When we were given more money to buy, say, new transfer lines, says Seth Smith, we were restricted by government rules to buying sometimes inferior local tooling., Then there was the way that the cars were produced. He added that communists active in Unite "mourned the loss of their most distinguished veteran, a mentor and guide to us all". 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. He described him as "a loud-mouth who thought he had the support of the workers". 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. Leylands future was assured over the next two decades through reluctant government financial support, the new Mini Metro model and a joint venture with Honda. I pointed out that we paid them until 4.30pm. For many, Mr Robinson is remembered "very badly", according to Chris Cowin, an expert on British Leyland's history. Giving the Tribunals decision, Mr Smith said it should be made clear that Mr Yates dismissal predated others, which came after publicity given to workers found sleeping on a night shift. This has not happened easily and Black and Asian people have often had to fight for their rights. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A motion for a strike in favour of his reinstatement was overwhelmingly defeated - 14,000 votes against to just 600 in favour. 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. In his defence, Mr Yates claimed that British Leylands system of giving a measured quota of work for a shift resulted in his men never having enough work to do. Fourteen night shift men caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant have been sacked , a wife claimed last night. I hadnt been there for many years. He was sacked by Michael Edwardes, the managing director of British Leyland, in November 1979. Furthermore most of their fathers, uncles, etc. 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. Mr Yates, of Coplow Close, Balsall Common, Warwickshire, claims that he was unfairly dismissed. Buried deep somewhere in that automotive salmagundi: an old Punch magazine. W[/dropcap]e tend to think of British Leyland as a sprawling, unwieldy and inefficient industrial giant shambling its way from crisis to crisis, a universal joke lampooned by everyone from Fleet Street to The Two Ronnies. He worked variously for Morris, Austin, BMC, BLMC, BMLH, Leyland Cars, Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover- Triumph Thats roughly a new corporate brand every 10 months and on the launches of the Allegro, 18-22 Series, TR7 and XJ-S. At that time, BL had the biggest advertising budget in the UK, he says, and we gave Saatchi its first-ever car account, which was the Princess., Dapper, silver-haired Alan Zafer, who began at MG, goes further: It was probably the greatest range of cars under one umbrella. Seth Smith joined Leyland Motor Corporation as Triumph press officer in 1967, and in 1968 helped with the famous announcement of the Leyland and BMH merger. The paint turned dull and flat quite quickly. Thatcher provided British Leyland with 2.9 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) of taxpayer money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said. Do they take well to polishing, T-Cut, or is a respray the remediation? It certainly became the great nationalised whipping boy of the 1970s, and by the end of the decade its image was on the floor. After two days of disciplinary hearings and . Following his death on Tuesday aged 90, BBC News examines his legacy. The measured day rate replaced piece work at around 1970-1974 IIRC. But the political mood of the country was changing. The men were found tucked up in sleeping bags when management swooped on the priming shop at the Range Rover plant in Solihull, near Birmingham. Mr Robinson was among those trade unionists soon to lose their grip on power. Mr Robinson, one of the most famous trade unionists of the 1970s, was dubbed Red Robbo by the media. As shop steward at British Leyland in Longbridge, Birmingham, he was involved in a series of strikes and walkouts over . By 1975, it had been bailed out by the government, which now owned 95% of it. Read about our approach to external linking. But taking a bed to work was a deliberate act of anticipation.. It needs to be left alone. 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. 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. The pamphlet said: All our efforts and resources must be mobilised to change the policy of closures and contraction. He was accessible to all, cogent and a listener! 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. A Supervisor who was sleeping was also dismissed, along with a Foreman. Five minutes afterwards Mr Yates came out. But the car giant had been hit hard by post-war economic struggles and had developed a reputation for producing low-quality cars. 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. This was probably fine for something like Radio 3, which would use recordings of orchestras playing symphonies to fulfil the MU restrictions, but not so good for Radio 1 or independent stations that relied on pop records. He was the main spokesman for the British Leyland combine committee which united about 40 different plants around the country, for most of the 1970s. The long-standing custom and practice of allowing men to go home early once they had completed their quota of work was a thorny industrial relations issue. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. The company assumed its current name in 1982. Quite funny you mentioned the NHS as Harold Musgrove moved onto their after BL and as per the stories of the day left after cocking that up to. They had begun a policy of non-cooperation following the managements moves to stop workers leaving before the shift was completed. Within its yellowed pages, a cartoon shows three British Leyland workers clustered around the company magazine, contemplating a . Our picture shows Maureen Crook and her seven woman party, wives of striking workers at British Leyland's Triumph No.2 factory in Speke, with their petition of over 1000 signatures for Prime Minister Jim Callaghan. The struggle for equality at work. "He is quoted as saying: 'If we make Leyland successful, it will be a political victory. As Glenns said, even the Princess and its older stable mates were not bad at all by the end. A certain British steel plant would have early workers finish their work quota, do part of the late shift quota, then the late shift came in, finished off their quota and did the night shift quota too. 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. Not to mention any management off home by 3pm.Hardly surprising they send teenagers with bowel cancer hone with a suggestion that laxatives might do the trick.. RME11T1N - Feb. 02, 1980 - Leyland workers Shun Robinson: The gamble by Sir Michael Edwardes, chairman of British Leyland to dismiss Mr. Derek Robinson, finally paid off yesterday when the workforce at Longbridge refused to take strike action to force the reinstatement of the converner. , after all, was the fifth largest billion pounds ( $ 4.4 billion ) of taxpayer money from to... Pamphlet said: all our efforts and resources must be mobilised to the... A loud-mouth who thought he had the support of the firm was nothing to do how is bunking. In alleged clock-card malpractices at the plant must develop a campaign that involves every BL worker, component. Director of British Leyland workers clustered around the company regarded the investigation as private and! Letters which not only we must develop a campaign that involves every BL worker every... 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