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Tei Pease Eur =. Scas Quram ==55 May 18, 1991 No. 2 _aroon. N4 2UU UNIPART, the supplier of spare parts for Rover cars, has embarked on a new offensive against union officials atits main depot in Oxford.
Since privatisation four years ago, the union leadership has made one concession after anther to the company. This has led to the acceptance of employment on short-term contracts-something that has been rejected in every other section of the Cowley car complex.
But now the Unipart management has moved to destroy union organisation wholesale. Moves to institute 'team leaders', a key part of the process of 'japanisation, were strongly rejected by a mass meeting on 6 March.
An attempt by the management. to prevent the organisation of a further mass meeting two days later was ignored, with workers insisting on a response from the Unipart management to the unions' repre sentations.
In the event. the mandement response was swil. At 3.30pm the same day - ter minutes before the cro oto sot - #e Serior and Teor "Git. stewards wiere sack. ed and expelled from the premises, along with the AUEW Senior Steward.
All three had around 30 years service with the company and many years as convenors.
A further mass meeting was then organised, which saw the sacked convenors argue strongly against any industrial action. They pointed to the possibility of legal threats and recommended a procedure culminating in a ballot.
In practice this took nearly two months. Throughout this period workers were warned by Unipart that any worker taking action faced the sack - and that a ballot would not protect them. In addition, the company organised showings of videos of non-union companies where workers were better off. )
Eventually, on 2 May, all three senior stewards were offered a £25,000 buy-off - which they accepted. An important opportunity to roll back the anti-union offensive has been wasted. Instead, trade unionism has been all but destroyed in a plant that was once among the best organised in the industry.
NO SOONER has a star-studded international pop concert been organised to help the Kurds, than the catastrophe in 'Natural' disasters are worsened by poverty or simply caused by it. These disasters are accelerating because the third world, in a period of capitalist crisis, is getpublic services?