Salary: 24,000 - 28,000 per annum including sleep-in allowance. 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.. 1970 Ferrari 512M track test Group 5 great driven at Paul Ricard, Driving the legendary Bentley 3 Litre and Bentley 4 Litre. 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. 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. 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. I realised that it wasnt going to sell somehow it had no presence. But the political mood of the country was changing. 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 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. Judge for yourself. 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. A quote from Austin Rover Managing Director Harold Musgrove (right) from 1984 underlines that. 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. 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. Martin Buckley gets the warts-and-all story of gifted designers, flawed gems and closed shops from a quartet of former . Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection: Visit for a family celebration - Read 1,173 reviews, view 382 traveller photos, and find great deals for Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection at Tripadvisor. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. In 1975 Robinson succeeded Dick Ethridge, a fellow Communist Party member, as the AEU convenor at Longbridge. Communist Party of Great Britain, Communist Party of Britain [1] Derek Robinson (1927-2017) was a British trade unionist. 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. First edition. We all worked like hell to make it work Inside British Leyland. 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. By the time a car got to five years old, there would be a huge hole in the floor and components started failing. Perhaps more importantly, the rational economy, which includes companies like ICJ, Racal and . I pointed out that we paid them until 4.30pm. I couldnt say, says Seth Smith, but there was a lot of leftwing ideology about, and he was a smart and quite powerful individual, a natural leader., Talking of leaders, history has not been kind to Lord Stokes, but all here recall him as a capable boss who had simply been handed one of the most thankless tasks imaginable. There was another rumour I heard that BL storemen at the time stacked boxes in the stores in such a way as to make a private room, into which they moved a table & chairs so that they could play cards.. Job Type: Permanent, Full-Time. The company assumed its current name in 1982. Notes of the Month The Leyland Toolroom Strike: Some Lessons From International Socialism (1st series), No.97, April 1977, pp.4-5. Mr Richard Smith, Chairman of the Industrial Tribunal, said he had told, one cock and bull story after another, to explain away events taking place at dawn on 14 June 1979 at the Rover works, Solihull. Be the first to rate this post. It was a fantastic shape but, when I parked it, nobody looked at it. Only three men, none of them Mr Yates, had gone to the clocking point before 6.45 am, the end of the shift. Strikes co-ordinated by Mr Robinson cost British Leyland 200m in lost production, according to chairman Michael Edwardes Former Leyland worker Stephen Cox said Mr Robinson was regarded by many . Mr Alan Walters, a supervisor, said he had seen another man come from the office carrying a Land-Rover seat capable of being used as a bed. Mr Robinson, one of the most famous trade unionists of the 1970s, was dubbed Red Robbo by the media. The biggest problem was scabs of rust breaking through the paint all over the car within a couple of years. 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. Opinion : Derek Robinson: Victim or villain? Did the media have it in for British Leyland? Security officers kept watch from behind an extractor fan in a paint shop, from where they could see a clocking point. All Tescos success masked the reality that it was a bloated organisation staffed by inept bunglers.The brand value of Tesco was all conquering.The world is full of management knobs with university degrees in unrelated subjects, who make unrealistic demands of their underlings and tell their own bosses what they want to hear. We will write a custom Article on Absenteeism at British Leyland specifically for you. British Leyland's Truck and Tractor Plant, Bathgate, 1980. What's he waiting for? Linda Fisher's interview. THE GUARDIAN LEYLAND BRINGS IN BELGIAN BUILT MINIS Bri tish Leyland is to bring in several thousand Minis from its Belgian plant in DAILY EXPRESS LEYLAND REBELS IN NO CUTS STAND By Declan Cunningham Leyland shop stewards launched a last ditch campaign yesterday 90,000 BL workers to get copies of 'ultimatum' By Clifford Webb British Leyland's Nuffield Press subsidiary yesterday began rushing WHERE A LACK OF INCENTIVES IS A BARRIER TO PRODUCTIVITY By Nick Boulter, Longbridge November 1977 to March 1979, the last year as TGWU BL dealer network near collapse after defections to European car groups By Clifford Webb Sir Michael Edwardes, BL's chairman, is fighting Sleeping men's supervisor is dismissed By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent BL yesterday completed disciplinary hearings More BL men found asleep on night shift From Our Correspondent Oxford Three days after 13 workers were dismissed after being found American dealers call for decision on MG By David Felton Worried American car dealers who hold BL franchises are pressing the British British Leyland vesterday dismissed Mr Derek Robinson. It wasnt just at BL. Sell Your Car On Honest John Classics For Free. 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. 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. Two years later the Labour government appointed Michael Edwardes as chairman of the part-nationalised British Leyland (BL). He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. A further confrontation with the Transport and General Workers Union over BLs imposition of new working practices in April saw market share slump further to 13 per centin June 1980. Preventing home working in Pandemic days by nuisance noise is dire dilydaydreamnewneighbours, Opinion : Austin Maestro a tale of unfulfilled promise, Opinion : Celebrating 40 years of the Austin Maestro, Opinion : Why unrest plagued the Maestros launch, The cars : Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 development story, eBay Find of the Week : Rover 45 with less than 2k miles on the clock, Archive : Car plant strikers go back for talks. As shop steward at British Leyland in Longbridge, Birmingham, he was involved in a series of strikes and walkouts over alleged mismanagement. 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. Undermining the shopfloor In this article DAVE LYDDON analyses the forces at work in British Leyland. Heal opens up on shock mid-season move. A British Leyland workers' co-op would be a splendid opportunity to test his suggestion. Modified date: August 5, 2017. Could he please have three large boxes of Cuban cigars instead?, Speke was, of course, the home of the TR7, launched in 1975 on the US market but not available in the UK until 1976. Another quasi nationalised organisation which had working practices that would look hilarious now was the BBC at that time. Ray Horrocks (right), the head of BL Cars, told Chairman Michael Edwardes: We talk of regaining management control and applying proper discipline. Robinson was not reinstated. Do they take well to polishing, T-Cut, or is a respray the remediation? The British rail class 153 super sprinters are single car units converted in the 1990s from British Leyland built two-car class 155s. Stories from those at the coalface. Belated attempts to set up acceptable new output targets had been resisted by the Shop Stewards. This British Leyland collection is diverse, huge and full of interest. 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. 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. Often this meant DJs talked too much to keep within the restrictions, which annoyed listeners, until finally in 1987 needletime was axed. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. 2023 BBC. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: "History will show that Derek was unfairly maligned by the media as he aimed to find solutions to British Leyland's industrial disputes and turn around the car company. A spokesman said that they would consider taking action against anyone found dozing at work. "He may well have had absolute belief in what he was doing, but few others did," Mr Cox added. One factor perhaps not widely understood is that chronic under-investment meant that many major components were being built on pre-war tooling, whereas the Germans, for example, had all the latest kit. Whatexactly happened and whenare not easy to decipher. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. So that was the sleeping on the night-shift affair. Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection: Quirky hotel, good for parties and groups - Read 1,173 reviews, view 382 traveller photos, and find great deals for Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection at Tripadvisor. leader of the unofficial BL shop stewards' committee. Musgrovemay well have beenreferring to the Drews Lane plant in Birmingham. 3. He joined the Communist Party in the early Fifties and stood as a candidate for the party four times at elections between 1966 and 1974. Indeed it almost looks like Corsas, Combos and Vectras had a salmon pink colour option! He was sitting opposite Mr Robinson when the union convenor was finally dismissed. As for his Red Robbo nickname, Mr Robinson told MPs in 2000 he regarded it as a badge of honour. 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. At one stage one in eight pounds spent in Britain were with Tesco. The tribunal at Birmingham heard that the events took place in June 1979, not November as previously assumed, after a six-month investigation into alleged clock-card malpractices at the Solihull plant. work. The Daily Mail claimed that the car firm British Leyland was paying bribes, and was exposed for printing a ludicrous hoax. Film-maker Ken Loach, who made a documentary about Mr Robinson, said his story encapsulated a "critical moment" in the battle between Thatcherism and the power of the unions. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. In this occasional series Ian Nichollsrevisits some of these stories, using the newspaper articles of the time as the main source of information. The odd 1m going missing (I would have paid money to see the auditors face when they found that little gem), contractors doing nothing for weeks at 100 a day because the bloke who set the administration lock password buggered off for sunnier climes without telling anyone what it was. In 1981 BL entered into a joint venture with Honda Motor Company, Ltd., of Japan to produce Japanese-designed Triumph Acclaims in the United Kingdom. A company statement on the Superintendents discovery, said they had all completed their work quota. Not just the NHS government in general! A firebrand union leader and former British Leyland worker has died aged 90. When former Triumph and Leyland Special Tuning man Richard Seth Smith arrives, proffering a rare Rover SD1 press pack, all concerned nod sagely at the suggestion that this was yet another brilliantly conceived but indifferently executed car. 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. The Musicians Union, which was the union for musicians employed directly by the BBC, dictated that Top of the Pops had to employ a staff orchestra and singers, even if their services werent needed, which in most cases they were not. Back in 2011, I visited a fair-sized barn in North Yorkshire full of Maestros, Montegos and the odd Metro. Mr Yates, of Coplow Close, Balsall Common, Warwickshire, claims that he was unfairly dismissed. 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. Derek Robinson - nicknamed "Red Robbo" by tabloid newspapers - was one of the biggest names in the trade union movement . 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. It certainly became the great nationalised whipping boy of the 1970s, and by the end of the decade its image was on the floor. Whether or not unions in the UK took industrial action more than unions in Europe and North America is a moot point, much of the rubbish produced by the NoW, Daily Mail etc is treated as if it was historical fact nowdays where it should be regarded as propaganda. Your email address will not be published. International Socialism, April 1977. 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. "But they are going to appeal against the decision. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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. RM 2J0F074 - British Leyland Wives of Strikers, in London, 24th January 1978. British Leyland, Britain's largest automaker, faced bankruptcy in 1975. All this was occurring at the same time as the crisis confronting BL over its decision to fire Longbridge Convener Derek Robinson. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. The Stokes-era management had paid a high price to rid themselves of piecework but, in the climate of early 1970s Britain, the Shop Stewards had the upper hand, and British Leylands finances were too weak to withstand a major dispute, so to berate management is perhaps a bit unfair. "His legacy ought to be that you've got to fight," said Mr Loach. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. Classic car tax exemption: what you need to know. 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. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979, the government and BL sought to implement a recovery plan to save the ailing company. 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. But why had Mr Robinson's fellow workers not supported him? No mention was made of any disciplinary action against the workers. Yet surely using cheap steel on what was classed as an upmarket product was a big mistake and the Lancia joined the lesser Fiat Strada on the list of cars to avoid due to premature rust. With two successive name changes, British Leyland became BL Limited in 1979. AROnline Keith Adams 2001-2022 - please refer to the 'Terms of use' pages. Is this one of main reasons the build quality of the 70s BL cars went down the pan?? That was not the responsibility of the employees, that was not the responsibility of the workforce. 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. No votes so far! 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 . Vilified by the media as "Red Robbo" he was also betrayed, in the eyes of his supporters, by trade union bosses. The company remained a ward of the state for 13 years. 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. Although Edwardes had a reputation as a union basher, Robinson supported the idea of working with him under a policy of participation, whereby unions and management would cooperate on matters of industrial relations. It was about two oclock in the afternoon. Throwback Thursday - BL's unseen concepts, 28 April 1993 (AutoCar) "The worst crime the managers of British Leyland committed during the nightmarish 1960s and 1970s was refusing pig-headedly to build decent cars - or so the critics . DAILY EXPRESS BUY BRITISH DRIVE FOR LEYLAND BOOST By David Benson An aggressive campaign to 'Buy British' is to be launched by Leyland British Leyland is to be granted a further 300m of state aid next year, with 133m to follow if the vehicle group's performance improves. DAILY EXPRESS BUY BRITISH By Peter Durisch Leyland chief Sir Michael Edwardes left Britain over Christmas with a special messagefor BL seals pact for Japanese to produce first car in Britain From our Correspondent Tokyo, Dec 27 BL and Honda today ratified an agreement Robert Taylor investigates recently released Cabinet papers that document the end of the 1974-79 Labour Government The newly-opened Mr Robert Yates, British Leyland foreman, last night lost a claim that he was. 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. At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. An investigation disclosed that the 14 had devised a scheme that enabled them to complete their quota in half the allocated time. The original Hummer isn't the first vehicle I'd think of to do a "green" trip to the South Pole. The behavior of absenteeism is normally evidenced in work places where some workers may decide to make absenteeism their habit. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. By 1975, it had been bailed out by the government, which now owned 95% of it. People were not being properly paid and rewarded so they got together and formed their own alliance. The former British Leyland worker and trade unionist Derek Robinson has died, aged 90. 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