Prime Minister Harold Wilson has thrown down the gauntlet to every worker in Britain by his vicious attack on the striking workers at Chrysler's Stoke, Coventry plant. He wants to use But while Wilson lapped up the applause of his wine-swilling cronies at the annual dinner of the Confederation of British Industry on 20 May, the resolve of the 4,000 Chrysler workers to win their strike hardened.
Mick Gosling On 22 May they voted overwhelmingly-with only a handful againstto continue their strike until the company met their claim for t8 now, and negotiations towards £15 two weeks extra holiday, and equal pay for women workers from 1 July.
The company's offer, made last Friday on the eve of a seven day holiday, includes so many strings that acceptance could only strangle the future struggles of Chrysler workers on a national scale. The basic Chrysler are far from bankrupt they are making enormous profits. The We found out that on the Iran order sibility. - we suspected it for a long time - the money isnt aconed areculy trom tan What they do is send the parts to Iran and then they send the accounts along to Switzerland. We sell them at cost price and Zurich sells them at a profit. shows up in Zurich and America, it doesn't show up here. The Iran order is •Are you in favour of demanding the opening of Chrysler's books?
That has been raised and again it fell It's very difficult to open the books of Chrysler because where are the books - are they here or in America?
The company have said they'll give us an audit for workers' participation. We don't want an audit, we want the books An audit is no good, anybody can bend or interfere with the audit. But if we could get hold of the books that would •Are you in favour of nationalising The stewards as a whole don't want the company nanonausea, and nave never ask ca for it. In une event or chryster pullng out, the feeling of some of the stewardsnot all of them -is that we want it nationcontrol. This has pay offer of an extra f8 makes no mention of future negotiations for £15. It is equivalent to 15 per cent at a time when price inflation is nearer 35 per cent.
Although some outlying Chrysler plants will get overall increases of more than £10 to bring them nearer the Coventry rates, and women workers are to get equal pay for the grade or job for which they are classified, the deal offers too little money and too many strings 'PARTICIPATION' The biggest string is that of 'worker participation'. Anyone who still believes that such proposals are designed to give power to the shop floor has only to ask themselves why a powerful multi-national firm like Chryslers will pay its workers to accept them. Chryslers are offering a f50 lump sum provided certain principles contained in the management's proposals are agreed by *** 12 July, and another t50 lump sum if full agreement and implementation of the programme is carried through by the end of the year.
These proposals along with talk of profit-sharing have only one aim: to make Chrysler workers accept that the current crisis sweeping the motor industry-with markets shrinking, and Chrysler UK itself losing £18 million last year-is their responThese proposals will be linked to a savage productivity drive and the slashing of manning levels which every car company is trying to carry through at the moment. This is what the Ryder Report on British Leyland is all about. This is why management at Ford's Dagenham have been prepared to lock out 6,500 workers for the last four weeks to break a strike by 80 doorhangers, setters and welders in the Body Plant.
COMBINE
Chrysler's want a national deal so they can force through a co-ordinated rationalisation programme on a national level. And if they can't force through these proposals against the resistance of the workers, they want 'worker participation' to do it for them. Chrysler's plans cannot be defeated simply by resisting national deals and relying on plant bargaining. The strengthening of a Chrysler shop stewards' national combine committee, which would systematically report back on their negotia-
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them as whipping-boys before introducing a hard-line incomes policy in the wake of a 'Yes' vote in the EEC referendum.