M.D.W. at Linwood: 'There are two speeds you work. Very fast... and much faster!'

month-old Linwood deal as 'an "enabling agreement". It sets the scene for the introduction of work-study etc?, Cattellwho has been seconded by Rootes to direct the Department of Employment and Productivity's Manpower and Productivity Service - explained that this was the approach he was trying 'to persuade other industrial organizations to make'.

Carworkers, watch out!

James Callaghan, speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, has served unmistakeable notice La new governmentbacked drive to break all resistance to productivity deals.

If he singled out Midlands carworkers for special attack, it is because their fight gainst such agreements hi een the most stubbor siDs on the Linod ideas.

one steward was told by his union's executive 'We're not afraid Measured-Day Work'.

His reply, 'It all depends if you've got to work it or not', did not deter them from steamrollering opposition to the deal.

HILE Callarnan was holding forth in London I was interviewing workers at Linwood about their experiences since Measured-Day Work was accepted there.

said a sea aster ry fast Work time.

But this, of course, must be the touchstone for every trade unionist's attitude. industrial correspon DAVID MAUDE Once you get to about 40 vears of age you just can1 keep up this kind of pace.

We've got a management "trouble-shooter" in at the moment. He doesn't speak to mere workers, just puts the screws on the foremen.

He's "sacked" one of them six times in the last week for not driving hard enough, and another five times. Periodically, he gets "sacked" himself, of course.

The deal was supposed to bring peace to Linwood, but there's been more trouble than ever since it came in. In June you had about 1,000 of the blokes threatening to burn the place down!

It would be a madhouse if it wasn't so tragic.

It's horn-to-horn working for £24 12s. a week. Everyone hates the agreement.

Financially. we're much worse off. When I was on piece-work some years back I'd earn £40 a week with overtime-now it's £34.

It would have been £45 on piece-work by now because we'd have pushed it up • to meet the cost of living.

A track worker confirmed that conditions were already near-intolerable.

In order to install shockabsorbers, he told the Workers Press, he had to squat on his haunches and hop with the line while working at the same time.

&Taking off the night shift's a sign of the times', commented a patternmaker from Linwood's die shop.

Already they've been able to get a big reduction in manpower off the line. Maintenance mates are also being cut down.

We used to work on estimated times for jobs. They wanted a system whereby they check progress and chase up every day, but we fought to throw out Measured-Day Work, work-study, three shifts and the rest.

They've not been able to implement this on our section.

In fact they only got the deal through at all by making written concessions and giving us a £14 a half-year tool

The die shop at Linwood threw out MDW. got much worse. It's not only the rotten leadership we've got here, the bad period we're in in the car industry's also affected this.

Now they want to tie us up with a new procedure agreeYou already have stewards saying we can't get a rise if we don't work harder. Now the management wants to swallow up any militants who are left in a web of procedure, joint productivity councils with the management and all that.

All this ties in completely with Wilson's policies, of course.

Linwood's been a provingground for the employers with these schemes. The deal here was Cattell's baby.

You get a lot of stewards now saying it's not time for a fight: "You can't fight the Yanks, they're too big". But as I've said before, if the Yanks are too big , to beat Oxford what the hell's going on in Vietnam!

The leadership's not getting a fight because they're not asking.for one-y further shackles EXPLAINING the lateness and absence procedure introduced in Nov. ember last year, a young toolroom worker told me that there had been a big tightening-up on this since Measured-Day Work was introduced.

enants ¿You've got to fill in a form now to get authorization for being off', he said.

After one unauthorized absence you get a verbal warning; after two inside of eight weeks—it used to be 12 when this first came in—a written warning; then it's final warning and three days suspension; then the boot.

Our washing-up time's been taken away, we work to the horn. If you're found washing. up when you should be working it's an immediate final warning-and that hangs over you for five weeks.

We're allowed exactly 35 minutes a day personal time, minutes which is the morning and afternoon breaks. At the same time they're cutting down on what think's unnecessary movement outside your areathis apparently includes going to the toilet!

The foremen are getting more and more nervous. on our job-times, yet. But i They haven't tightened think the three-shift system's due to come in early next year.

The money's above the district engineering rate, but it's not particularly high for the Clyde.

12s. 9d. an hour and that's it—f25 lls. for a top-grade toolroom worker working in very cramped conditions. On overtime you get the 12s. 9d. plus 50 per cent of the 8s. fallback rate.

In January it goes up to 13s. 9d. an hour.

The trade union organization seems to me to be very bad here. The big mistake was letting the deal in, but now Coventry's got it for 17s. 5d. and hour and there's been no real move for parity as yet!!

On top of this, if the new procedure agreement referred to the patternmaker is accepted, it would place furBitter 1 TURIN'S motor show opened on Wednesday accompanied by bitter demonstrations against the Fiat employers and their government allies. Fiat workers spat on and kicked the car carrying Italian Minister of Commerce Domenico Magri into the show, while 1,000 police carrying riot sticks and tear gas grenades mounted guard outside the salon where the show was being held. On Thursday, new struggles broke out inside the Fiat plant as workers battled with company officials and blacklegs. Machinery, offices

Describing the 13IN ROOTES ther shackles on Linwood A system of Joint Representative Councils and Joint Consultative Committees would box future yearly negotiations firmly into a framework determined by 'efficiency improvements and the company's profitability.

Shop, stewards, committed to 'abide by all existing and future agreements between the management and the unions and accept that they have a special responsibility to ensure that such agreements are honoured', would find themselves enmeshed in this system.

Rootes want this agreement to come into force next January.

But many stewards have not even seen it, although it has existed in draft form since the end of September.

"The company's profitability', to which pay and conditions would be tied by this procedure, even after the expiry of the present three-year agreement, is at the moment almost non-existent. 1967 when the company suffered a £2.4 million trading loss.

FOR the fourth year ins succession, Rootes this week recommended that no dividend be paid on any of its shares.

Only changes in its depreciation arrangements prevented the company again showing a loss.

This must intensify pressure —from both Chrysler and the Labour government's Industrial Re-organization Corporation, which owns 13.2 per cent of Rootes shares-to cut costs and speed up production. Further attempts to step up exploitation at both Linwood and Coventry must inevitably follow.

In an attempt to increase its competitive position and push its home market share back up from the near-disastrous 9 per cent to which it has fallen, Rootes is to invest considerable sums at both plants.

Linwood's £20 million allocation is being spent on new press lines, advanced paint systems and 'gate-line' body assembly (dealt with in the first article in this series).

Sales fell in the year ending July 3i to just over to million, £6 million less than in These new developments can only increase the threat of redundancies.

Rootes workers have been led by their national officials and local union leaders into the Tory-Labour productivity trap. They must now fight their way out of it.

It is this fight which will be prepared at the All Trades Unions Alliance's motor industry conference on November 8.

FOR next Tuesday's Workers Press, our industrial staff have prepared a more detailed analysis of the proposed Linwood procedure agreement.

Order your copies today!