Discussion with a T&GWU steward What is the background to the dispute? The simple answer is inflation. Under piecework, weekly wages and efficiency have risen by approximately 30 per cent. But the workers, on the XJ6 in particular and they are responsible for seven-eighths of Jaguar's production, have not seen any improvement in their living standards. The national idea that the car worker is on £40 plus per week is a fable. An XJ6 worker on days last year did not get more than The above discussion took place on the second day of the strike. The Coventry Industrial Holiday has now started, so there will be no major developments until the end of the month, although 24 hour pickets are being maintained over the holiday. This is a suitable opportunity to assess the progress of the strike and examine some of the issues involved. The original decision to strike was passed by an overwbelming majority (about 95 percent). This shows an unprecedented militancy in a factory which has not taken large scale strike action for over five years. This initial militancy has been maintained throughout. About 80 percent of workers have turned up for picket duty, although numbers have tailed off since there are virtually no supplies being delivered and the plant is at a standstill.
The Union has demanded a "substantial increase on piecework rates"; management insist that any increase must be linked to a "new system of payment". At present the strike is preventing Jaguars from supplying the XJ6 model to meet large export orders. Further, it is delaying their plans for launching the new XJI2 (they have about 500 cars ready inside the plant and at storage depots, which are blacked by delivery drivers). Most people felt that if Jaguars had £1,700. Inflation has wiped out any noticeable differential that the production worker might have had over other workers. So our claim is for a substantial increase on the piecework rate. But Jaguar's offer makes even an interim award conditional on acceptance of a Measured Day Work scheme.
What are Jaguar's aims?
Jaguar's aims are two-fold. First, they have to satisfy the increasing demand for the XJ6. Equally important, if not more so, they have to implement the present BLMC offered an interim payment of around £2.00 towards the piecework claim, there would have been a return to work immediately after the holiday. In fact Jaguars refused to put forward any cash offer that was not directly linked to Measured Day Work. Consequently the talks broke down.
For the past three or four yeans, BEMC have had a policy of introducing MDW into all their plants. At present there are struggles around this issue at Morris Cowley, Austin Morris Longbridge, Standard Triumph Coventry and other plants. As was argued in the interview, the central issue in the strike from the very beginning was not simply a pay increase. The issue is on what terms will the increase be given. Underlying this is the question: can BLMC introduce the new system of payment at Jaguars, and thus take another step towards introducing MDW throughout the combine? This is why Jaguar are not interested in an easy settlement. They are prepared to stick out for a long fight in order to achieve their real aim.
Whilst it is clear that Jaguar are working within the framework of an overall strategy, it 1s equally clear that the strike committee, in leading the strike, has no overall strategy. It is accepted that MDW is an important policy of Measured Day Work. So Jaguar are looking on the strike as a means of bringing about MDW.
How in your opinion does Measured Day Work hit the worker?
Simply by pushing the individual worker to his individual limits of endurance. And the limited growth rate in production that can be obtained measured against the massive increases in efficiency that MDW brings must mean less jobs.
And rank and file organisation?
It's true that MDW also hits at the shop stewards bargaining power. But where rank and file organisation is very strong the employers try to use the union to discipline the workers. In some deals the stewards are bought off by being allowed to wander around all day. The steward says this deal cannot be all bad if I'm allowed such freedom.
Are women workers involved?
Yes, approximately 10 per cent of the strikers are women. Their demand is for equal pay over three years in 10 per cent LECASES.
Why is this battle being fought plant by plant?
You must remember that in the car industry we have always looked after ourselves plant by plant as it were. The main reason for this is the strong shop-floor organisation we have managed to achieve. However, to be element in the dispute. However, their actual tactics have been based not on fighting the introduction of MDW, but rather on winning an increase in piecework rates. For example: in the first week of the strike, management sent a letter to all workers on strike. The letter put over the MDW system as the solution which was in the best interests of both Jaguars and the workers. But, while Jaguar have laid their cards before the workers, the strike committee has failed to follow suit. The implications of this are obvious: when the crunch comes and the management make a cash offer linked to MDW, the groundwork for a continued fight against it will not have been laid.
There is another illustration of this absence of overall strategy. In the past decade there have been a series of isolated struggles against MDW in the car industry; in general these have been unsuccessful. A fight against MDW at Jaguar can only hope to succeed if it is generalised throughout the combine. At present BLMC is able to tackle the factories one by one, The fact that a number of struggles are taking place now, offers a real opportunity to link those struggles. To date, no serious efforts have. been made to link up with other BLMC plants. there has got to be some kind of blanket policy.
What is the general feeling at Jaguar? The degree of militancy presently being shown by the Jaguar production workers has never been known. If the present mood of solidarity is maintained I have high hopes that we will win our claim.
What are the political lessons of your struggle?
As the struggle is created by the terrific rate of inflation it is obvious that something more permanent must be done about market forces. The Conservative Party is totally committed to keeping market forces. The Labour Party has to be judged on its performance between '64 and 70 (all they did from '45 to "51 was hive off the least profitable sections of British capitalism to be supported by the state). Between 64 and *70 the Labour Party failed miserably to do anything for the working class. The working class have quickly got to understand that they can no longer tolerate an economic policy which is controlled by a few for the benefit of that few. I believe that unless the present trend is stopped we will see a situation where the dignity of man will no longer be a reality. It will not be easy to bring about the necessary change and in order to do this the working class must together fight for a planned economy which provides for the needs of all the people.
Of course these are not simply weaknesses of one strike committee, but reflect deeper weaknesses in the British trade union movement. Since the war, strong shop floor organisation has been adequate to win wage increases (this is particularly true in the car industry and in Coventry. One of the results of this is the absence of any powerful local or inter-combine links. With the growth of large combines, and in the situation where employers and government are forced to make major attacks on the living standards, conditions and organisations of the working class, the establishment of links between workers in different parts of a combine is an absolute necessity even to defend present conditions. In order to prevent BLMC from carrying out their plans. it will be necessary to take industrial action throughout BLMC. In order for such action to be a realistic proposition, the issues involved and the background to them must be seen in political terms. The struggle in a particular factory or industry must be understood in the context of the crisis of capitalism and the situation of the working class in it. This indicates the issues for revolutionaries: they must try in this way to show the working class how their day to day struggles can be fought and won. Coventry IMG
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Workers at the Jaguar X.J6 and E Type plant in Coventry have now (14th July) been on strike for three weeks. The claim is for a substantial increase in piecework rates, but Jaguar are trying to make any offer conditional on the introduction of Measured Day work