Linwood plan — no solution for car workers

The Newsletter, vol. 8 no. 372, 28 November 1964 · scan page 5

Title, extent and credit checked against the scan (17 October 2026, from the scan: page 5 (printed page four), columns 1-2, 'From BOB SHAW, Our Scottish Correspondent'; the record had taken the Plumbing headline; the Plumbing, Scottish bus and Axle items welded into it are cut out). The text is machine-read and not corrected: for anything you quote, read the scan.

Smethwick® From BOB SHAW, Our Scottish Correspondent As a result of pressure bry workers at their actory in Linwood, Scotland, Rootes Company have conceded that they will operate a work-sharing plan for the production workers.

The plan, which, of course, requires little sacrifice for the Rootes bosses and a lot of sacrifice from the men, means that during a cycle of five weeks, production workers will be laid off for one week.

As part of the bargain made with the stewards the Linwood workers are to acoept greater mobility of jobs in the factory; some workers will also be further downgraded in pay and the skilled sections will remain on full time.

The first point to be made about this agreement is that suspicion is raised by the praise which has been made about tne plan both by management, trade union leaders and the capitalist press.

When the track workers went on strike earlier in the year for higher earnings, which they claimed were fully justified by the increased output of the factory, they were attacked viciously by all these officials for their lack of responsibility. Rootes management have not undergone any change of heart. nor have the press.

HARD-PRESSED

Now it is the hard-pressed production workers who will have their wages cut for a further period in order to "save jobs. They will also be subjected to pressure in the factory during which many will be forced to find other jobs.

A convenor claimed that

the redundancies will now be met by 'natural' wastage. The track workers know what that means.

Skilled sections and production workers will be even further divided by the agreement. The whole faotory should have taken a common stand to work the shorter week and to fight for an agreement with no loss in pay.

MANOEUVRE

Rootes management will manoeuvre to sufficiently weaken any opposition to their plans so that the next boost in production will be pushed through without opposition. In the future the Rootes workers can be sure that the conditions which will be imposed will be worse than before.

But the management may not have it all their own way.

There is now circulating in the Rootes factory a rank and file sheet called Impfact. In its pages it puts down all the feeling which the workers have for the management.

It shows that militant opposition to Lord Rootes and Company is growing and that development of leadership which will fight for socialist policies is beginning to come forward.