CATCH-22 IN LEYLAND JOBS DEAL

The ending by union officials of the 1l-week sit-in at the BritishLeyland gear-box subsidiary in Basingstoke, Hants, leaves the 750 workers without any real guarantees of job British-Leyland chiefs appear to have got what they. want, and so too have the new buyers, the Eaton Corporation of Ohio; who take over next January.

For Lord Stokes, the deal with the plant and the land has raised another badly needed f5m to assist Leyland's push into Europe. They have also rid themselves of the responsibility for the Thornycroft factory.

As far as Eaton's are concerned the position is clear, despite all the ballyhoo contained in the final agreement sold to the occupying engineers. They have three years to learn about Leyland's products and will then be in a position to close the whole plant down.

For the Thornycroft men who occupied the factory for 11 weeks the settlement is a set-back, but not a defeat.

Their heroic and defiant struggle inspired many workers throughout the Leyland combine, 23,000 workers striking in their support on August 28.

They rejected a no-strike deal and rebuffed union officials. Their fight set a precedent throughout the Leyland combine which can be built on if the lessons are learned. the M3 and an equal distance au A dintennn from the Basingstoke town centre, the site could be sensitive planning-wise due to its improvement position at one of the town's entrances,' it added.

So the first thing to say is that Eaton's seem to be moving into a position where they could, if they wanted, leave Basingstoke altogether. The factory is old—it was built in 1898—and Eaton's have a far more modern plant bought off the government at Bolton in Lancashire.

And in addition-contrary to reports in the Tory Press— the Thornycroft workers have been offered no real guarantees, even for the three years being talked about.

In itself the agreement makes clear that neither Eaton's nor British-Leyland are committed to anything in essence. Leaving out the parts dealing with redundancy payments and hardship money for those who sat in, the key clauses in the agreement are numbers 4 and 5 together with the addendum.

But before examining them, the first task is to examine British - Leyland's parlous financial state and the state of the commercial vehicle market for which the Thornycroft gear-boxes are used.

With that overall picture of Leyland's present state and its future intentions, the clauses in the Thornycroft agreement will be shown for what they are really worth and not just a form of words.

Towards the end of last year, the only British-owned motor manufacturer had current debts to suppliers and others two years until the tariffs are removed, any sort of headway made in Europe will be carried through only by intense competition and price wars as far as the British are concerned.

At the moment Europe has hardly been penetrated either by Leyland or any other UK commercial vehicle producer. Most of Leyland's commercial section exports go to countries like South Africa, Australia, Nigeria and New Zealand.

In a list of exporting markets, Belgium only ranks, for example, in fifth place, followed by Denmark. The rest of the Common Market countries account for very little.

As far as the heavy truck business is concerned,. the British market slumped 14 per cent last year and in France and Germany the market has This rationalization is being carried out throughout the Ley. land truck range, that is with Albion and AEC. Yet there is still some way to go.

Take Mercedes. Every one of its trucks is built at a single modern plant at Worth, close to the French border. The entire range is based on a single-engine design built up from four to 12 cylinders of standard size covering the power needs of trucks from six to 40 tons. The trucks share a small range of standard cabs and gearboxes and are built on a single assembly line.

Mercedes exports half its production and has captured 10 per cent of the French market. the Basingstoke plant, subject to market conditions, so that Eaton can honour a commitment to avoid any compulsory redundancy of employees during the period to January 14, 1976.' (Clause 4.) (My emphasis.)

Then 'for clarification' you turn to the 'addendum to find that, apart from market conditions which are themselves revealed to be perilous, there is talk of redundancy again before 1976.

The agreement talks of work-schedules and then warns that 'if at any time in the three years, the level of these schedules should be too low to " ensure that redundancy could be avoided BLMC will meet the national trade union affiniale ta dicraco tha maci position following domestic discussions between Eaton's ' and