Behind the Vauxhall pay set-back

to have won the , break back into • car market. work of trade union The background to last Friday's (November 21) acceptance of the deal by Ellesmere Port's NUVB members is strikingly similar to that the of the Ford 'penal clause' deal earlier this year.

Refusal of official support, lack split, confused and badly-publicized meetings were the hallmarks.

Vauxball made its first pay offer in April this year, but it was not until June that workers were given copies of the company's initial productivity proposals. Most of them were horrified.

No recommendation This would have tied the unions to a written-in agreement that unofficial strike action would not be supported, that they review the conduct of any member taking such action under rule and that they also recognise the company's own right to discipline unofficial strikers.

At Ellesmere Port, a meeting was held at the local stadium. No recommendation was made by officials of either the Amalgamated Engineers and Foundryworkers or the National Union of Vehicle Builders at this stage.

The proposals were overwhelmingly rejected and the joint shop stewards met to nammer out a programme ol demands.

A five-point common programme was agreed by Luton and Ellesmere Port stewards and this was accepted with only two votes against, by a second meeting at the Ellesmere Port stadium.

No officials were present at this meeting.

The AEF's official negotiators, meanwhile, had been instructed to fight on rather different lines.

What the union's executive wanted was more money for the lower-paid workers, a definite declaration of intent on the question of parity and agreement that conditions would be subject to local negotiations and mutuality. But these points in no way challenged the basis of the proposed deal.

Meanwhile, the Ellesmere Port press shop dispute had developed.

Several stewards now say that this was an issue on which they should not have been provoked.

Perfect excuse

The dispute gave the company a perfect excuse to lay off 3,000 workers on an issue apparently quite separate from the main deal and provided union officials with a copperbottomed means of driving a wedge between workers in the AEF and NUVB.

A decision to work to Vauxhall's own standard times was taken at a meeting on September 24.

Within two days not By our Industrial reporter the vehicle builders, but most of the engineers, had been laid off.

Only the skilled areas were kept working.

On October 2, the Ellesmere Port stewards called another meeting, This was the last meeting called independently of the officials.

A number of stewards now feel it was a mistake not to have taken the initiative out of the management's hands at this stage and called all-out strike action.

Six days later, talks at York produced a new form of words for the agreement while leaving its main points intact. Now the union officials moved into action in earnest.

Acceptance

Within a week of each othral and test Chestire district committees of the engineering union had voted acceptance of the deal and been backed by the national executive.

Then at an NUVB meeting in Luton, officials prevented a vote being taken against the deal.

From the response received by lobbying stewards from Ellesmere Port and from the feeling inside the meeting itself, it was clear that this meeting would have voted decisively against the company's proposals.

Then officials of both unions called meetings for October 24 at Ellesmere Port.

At the AEF meeting, which stewards claimed had been called at an inconvenient time for those still laid off, oficials allowed only one vote all hose in favour'-and declared the deal carried.

Pelted

They were immediately pelted with clods of earth by the men.

The NUVB meeting overwhelmingly kicked the deal out.

The following week, telegrams bearing the signatures of Vauxhall's personnel manager and two AEF district officials were sent out inviting the men to return to work.

On their return they found notices pinned up in the factory to the effect that officials had informed the company no dispute existed following the acceptance of the deal at the October 24| meeting. Shipyard deal Mr Dan McGarvey's Amalgamated Society of Boilermakers yesterday signed an agreement with Sunderland's Austin and Pickersgill shipbuilders which is clearly a blueprint for Measured-Day Work in the industry. Wages will be tied to steel tonnage worked.