2023 BBC. Five minutes afterwards Mr Yates came out. Modified date: August 5, 2017. Security officers kept watch from behind an extractor fan in a paint shop from where they could see a clocking point. Rugeley man apprehended with crack and heroin in Staffordshire town, Human error to blame for deadly train crash, says Greek PM, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. It happened, the tribunal at Birmingham heard, in June after a six-month investigation in alleged clock-card malpractices at the plant. Odd we never ever had a BL product..Incidentally Ive never ever seen a red SD1 before.. Did they suffer from the Renault red effect? Calling for him to step in to end the 12 week . unfairly dismissed for sleeping on a night shift and DAILY MIRROR Night-shift workers were given a wake-up warning by British Leyland bosses yesterday . A motion for a strike in favour of his reinstatement was overwhelmingly defeated - 14,000 votes against to just 600 in favour. The plant . Mr John Share, Personnel Manager, said the company was satisfied that Mr Yates had allowed men to sleep on a night shift and had allowed clocking offences in which he had taken part. They had begun a policy of non-cooperation following the managements moves to stop workers leaving before the shift was completed. Yesterday they faced a disciplinary hearing. Nicknamed Red Robbo in the press of the time, Robinson was involved in some 500 walkouts at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, the result of frequent disagreements between the companys management and unions over working practices. Do I have to update my blue V5 to a red V5C? My god it was awful, it was bought . Your email address will not be published. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. The company assumed its current name in 1982. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. British Leyland's Truck and Tractor Plant, Bathgate, 1980. Musgrovemay well have beenreferring to the Drews Lane plant in Birmingham. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. A little later, through a window, he saw two men, naked from the waist up. He was dressed. The ultimate result we see today zero hours contracts, the use of self employment status to avoid paying NI and there general degradation of workers since 1979. This has not happened easily and Black and Asian people have often had to fight for their rights. Five minutes afterwards Mr Yates came out. "He wasn't at all like what the media portrayed him as in the 1970s," he said. British Leyland trade union leader. Exterior view of British Leyland Strandard Triumph works entrance and gatehouse at Canley, Coventry . Vilified by the media as "Red Robbo" he was also betrayed, in the eyes of his supporters, by trade union bosses. He will give evidence today. Classic car tax exemption: what you need to know. At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece. Be the first to rate this post. Richard Lampett, aged 52, of Wichnor Road, Sheldon, Birmingham, was responsible for more than 300 workers, including the 13 men and two Foremen, who were dismissed 24 hours earlier. Linda remembers working for British Leyland and joining the union where she started off as a shop steward before being elected as Vice Convener of ACTS, part of the Transport and General Workers Union, serving from 1970-76. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? It needs to be left alone. With 'Red Robbo' now out of the picture the Austin Metro was launched in October 1980. With two successive name changes, British Leyland became BL Limited in 1979. The men were found tucked up in sleeping bags when management swooped on the priming shop at the Range Rover plant in Solihull, near Birmingham. The idea was that they should be able to make triple time: do each job in a third of the time allowed which meant that by half past two everyone would pack up and bugger off home!, And you cant discuss BL without including Red Robbo Derek Robinson, the shop steward. Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson led a long-running battle against management at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge throughout the 1970s. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Another who continues to believe in what Mr Robinson stood for is Graham Stevenson, who was the Communist Party candidate in the 2017 West Midlands metro mayor election. It certainly became the great nationalised whipping boy of the 1970s, and by the end of the decade its image was on the floor. This introduction is being written on 30 November 2011, the day we saw 2.5 million workers on strike, the biggest mass strike in Britain for generations. British Leyland tool room workers strike causes side effects across the region. I realised that it wasnt going to sell somehow it had no presence. Tesco is the same, they thought they could dominate the market forever as they pioneered the pile em high, sell em cheap style of supermarket, but were caught out by smaller continental rivals who beat them on price and quality. The size, militancy and determination felt on the pickets, demos and rallies show that the sleeping giant, the British working class, has stirred. Id never seen anything like it in my life the place was awash with aluminium slurry and on the end of the transfer line was the tub of an Alvis scout car just propped up., When I went to BMW in 1979, adds Greenhill, I asked how test cars were prepared, and they said: We just de-wax and run them in. That was a revelation: at Jaguar, we took cars off the line, rebuilt them and blue-printed the engines! The Allegro was quite well received in Spain in 1973, although Zafer recalled a Fleet Street writer breaking his thumb on the Quartic wheel as it self-centred: So we sent off for a batch of circular wheels; that just resulted in journalists cutting their hands to shreds because they hadnt been properly finished off on the outside edge., To add insult to injury, an air traffic control strike over French air space meant that Leyland had to rent a Pan Am 747 to get the hacks back home. Undermining the shopfloor Not at first, says Seth Smith, but they sure as hell were once it was nationalised, Our four protagonists fail to agree on how good or bad the promisingly specified five-door, five-speed Maxi really was. When questioned the men said they had completed their work quota. But the political mood of the country was changing. Year: 1977. Your email address will not be published. 1970 Ferrari 512M track test Group 5 great driven at Paul Ricard, Driving the legendary Bentley 3 Litre and Bentley 4 Litre. An investigation disclosed that the 14 had devised a scheme that enabled them to complete their quota in half the allocated time. Salary: 24,000 - 28,000 per annum including sleep-in allowance. The story first hit the headlines on 12 November 1979 when it was revealed that 14 night shift workers had been caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant. British Leyland was more than just a vehicle manufacturer, it was a real-life industrial soap operawhich provided Fleet Street hacks with plenty to write about. Not really, its just moved from BL to the NHS. Keith Adams Youll find that spending time reading Ian Nicholls excellent set of stories about, Clive Goldthorp THE real significance of Honda Motor Company Limited (Honda) President and CEO Takeo, THE GUARDIAN Production should be back to normal today at two Midlands car plants where, British Motor Holdings the joining of BMC and Jaguar. The men at Drews Lane had worked to rule for several weeks in protest at management attempts to stop them leaving early. By the time a car got to five years old, there would be a huge hole in the floor and components started failing. Born in Cradley Heath in the Black Country in 1927, Mr Robinson had begun working at the Longbridge plant aged 14 and was in his 50s when the axe fell. As shop . The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Mr Robert Yates, British Leyland foreman, was dismissed for allowing men to sleep on the night shift at the Rover works in Solihull, West Midlands, an industrial tribunal was told yesterday. Writing the same year, the Conservative MP Michael Grylls said: The truth is that today Leyland needs nothing but that most difficult of remedies for a politician to prescribe. Permanent Salary: 27,043 - 33,453pa; Hours: Monday - Friday 09:00-17:00 Friday 09:00 - 14:00; Person Specification He also stood as a Communist Party candidate in four general elections in the city between 1966 and 1974. Where can you get quick classic car insurance quotes? Ideal business/holiday rental Perfect for families, friends and work colleagues (a pet friendly home) The cottage is an attractive Grade ll listed property recently totally refurbished to a high standard maintaining its character and charm, an unusual build with Venetian type windows and a . The British Leyland Motor Company, BLMC, was formed back in 1968. BL began selling its interests in the 1980s, and by 1990 the Ford Motor . A combination of poor steel and corrosion, so Lancia werent entirely to blame. He will give evidence today. "We all worked like hell to make it work" Inside British Leyland. Harris Manns drawings were a lot more emotive than the car itself., Im not quite a BL revisionist, but Ive been of the opinion that its long and painful public suicide was merely the end result of a set of circumstances that had their roots in the mists of time long before most of the main human protagonists in this great industrial drama were old enough to drive. DeSantis won't say he's running. After a tip-off by the News of the World newspaper, senior managers the previous week carried out a surprise inspection of the night shift in a paint priming shop. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. Only three men, none of them Mr Yates, had gone to the clocking point before 6.45 am, the end of the shift. The former British Leyland worker and trade unionist Derek Robinson has died, aged 90. 13 November 1979. employing c9,000 workers in the 1970s, Plant taken over completely by Jaguar in 1977, and became the main Jaguar assembly plant after the closure of the Browns Lane Coventry plant in 2005. Everybody laughs about the Marina now, says Seth Smith, generously, but when you consider the brief to use Morris Minor components to make a Cortina rival it was a reasonable achievement. The Allegro that went through three gearboxes was BLs fault, since theyd put the wrong one on originally and the drones just replaced the wrong box with another wrong box by the part number.. And reduced my dads colleague to tears.. This means employees can complete their daily stint, or work quota, and then go home at any time from 3.00pm onwards, but still be paid to the end of the shift. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL for SCOTLAND (Lord McCluskey) On 10 January 1980 night-shift workers were given a wake-up warning by British Leyland management. The tabloid paid the equivalent of 75,000 to buy letters which not only . This whole affair, combined with the confrontation over the sacking of Derek Robinson, possibly contributed in BLs UK market share declining further to 15 per centin January 1980. THE TOOLROOM workers at British Leyland did not win their demand for separate bargaining rights. It was a merger promoted by the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation set up by the 1964-70 Labour government of Harold Wilson. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. He was 83 years old and had been in poor health for several . A shame really as improvements to the Maxi, Princess and Allegro had made these cars as good as many of their European rivals and certainly British Leyland never had to endure the sort of scandal that was engulfing Lancia at the time, where poor rustproofing was causing the engines to fall out of relatively new cars. In 1975, shortly after British Leyland's nationalisation, 'workers' participation' became union policy. "He is quoted as saying: 'If we make Leyland successful, it will be a political victory. Kearsley has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cars, down to the colour names and options, combined with a strong urge to save these underdogs. The number of strikes was incredible., On the subject of closed shops, Greenhill says: There was a discussion as to whether the sales office where I worked should become a closed shop. It will prove that ordinary working people have got the intelligence and determination to run industry'. Quite funny you mentioned the NHS as Harold Musgrove moved onto their after BL and as per the stories of the day left after cocking that up to. I just wish theyd said it while he was alive., Harold Wilson appears to be much more the villain of the piece. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. The story first hit the headlines on 12 November 1979 when it was revealed that 14night shift workershad been caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant. But surely there is an alternative, more positive spin on this dark industrial history, or at least one that makes it a little easier to see the reasons for the failures. No presence two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards had clocked 24 or cards!: 'If we make Leyland successful, it was awful, it british leyland workers sleeping.! & quot ; Inside British Leyland, in June after a six-month investigation in alleged clock-card malpractices at plant! 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