Outlook umu BHT FOR THE RIGHT TD WORK Renationalise ROVEA NOW!
nationalists gostavely with the prospect of closure, nothing else Rover? After the initial reaction to the announcement it but the yard's infamous sectarian past of Catholic exclu- was to be sold off, there were two positive steps, external to Longbridge. newspaper the News The first was a meeting of all Rover strong Gaydon, on March 21, which view that the keep the group together, and we have the unions and the left currents a happy workers' island of acung as ir tae yard was now the rowu, lony woodiey, spoke several times, calling for nationalisation. cross community harmony, The second was the magoverlooking its residual secnificent 80,000 tarian bar and role as a basclass acmonstration Birmingham which particularly showed Unity local support. The threatened closure of But since then there has been no siro or toc planaca united the working class of follow-up demonstration in Belfast in a mass campaign. London, and all Any future campaign to save nationalisation it from closure will certainly dropped by union leadership speakers the deeply entrenched sec- Instead, divisions that exist nowhere with trying to perperiod of workers orige concerted to take over trated on backing a bid led to save 10os, comoinca wit discussion and ex-Rover manager John of the Towers. It is even reported in act as a much needed spur to unions are part of the bid. the formation of a new con- All Woodley's efforts, and Socialist Democracy supWe demand an opening of the financial is happening of the KOSE Negotiating Committee, have now gone in this direc tion. At the first full meeting Council of BMW, on April 13, he called not for action to stewards make BMW backick on the sale, or try and get IGG tion of support for the comnational officer of but ask for the Towers hid to Woodley also met the company on his own to support strong the bid The proposal for workers April to stand outside BMW dealets and persuade people to put off their purchases, was also seen as a mean to give unions have even successtalk fully threatened an injuncbeen don to aciay tae nicaem» again to give more time for the bid. having got ine probiem is that none of the stewards knows what the bid is, and nor do the Longbridge, workforce. woodle Woodley has concen- become a one-man band promoung te lowers consor tium. Why is the secret? Does it involve the closure of Cowley, for example? Is it right that a union official who does not even Joint work for the firm is able to do this in secret? Are the workforce just fodder to pay subs, with no voice in such Most importantly, Longbridge there total has taken place. There have only been (wo shop stewards' meetings, more and no mass meetings.
All the initiatives are in the the company. Eighty per cent of the workforce is laid off for three weeks. The real question is whether they will all return to work?
The first step was to divide the Rover workforce. That's one reason why Solibull was sold to Ford, while Cowley workers were told they were with the transfer of Longbridge This left Swindon facing an undetermined future under cated all over the place, and Longbridge sold Now the company is dividLongbridge. With bid so raniser (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) legislation, they are ers on the mini will have the