Month: November 1979

Second BL union backs away from strike By Clifford Webb and Donald Macintyre The Transport and General Workers’ Union yesterday followed the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers and backed away […]

DAILY MIRROR Keep Away Red Robbo By Terence Stringer and Rob Chaytor British Leyland are to pay Derek Robinson , the sacked Communist shop steward , £ 90 a week […]

DAILY EXPRESS Outside the Longbridge plant 4,000 cheering engineers pledged their backing for Leyland , and voted to carry on working. Mr Roy Hill, who last year led a successful […]

The executive of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers has backed away from a confrontation with British Leyland after reaching an interim agreement over the dismissed Longbridge shop steward. The […]

Union leaders seek urgent meeting with BL chairman By Paul Routledge Leaders of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers are expected today to make official the BL strikes over the […]

Sir Michael Edwardes, chairman of BL, and all his senior managers will resign rather than bow to union pressure for the reinstatement of Mr Derek Robinson, the dismissed shop steward, […]

BL is threatened by complete shutdown By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent The official trade union machinery closed around the dismissed British Leyland shop steward Mr Derek Robinson yesterday threatening […]

BL warns union over strike support By Clifford Webb and Donald Macintyre Mr Pat Lowry, British Leyland’s director of personnel, last night warned the union directly involved in the dismissal […]

More than 31,000 Leyland car workers were on strike or laid off last night in protest at the dismissal of the Longbridge unofficial shop stewards’ leader, Mr Derek Robinson. BL […]

EDWARDES IS WRECKING BL FROM WITHIN – MP Leyland chairman Sir Michael Edwardes was” the mole of BL “,”wrecking the firm from within,” a Left-wing MP claimed in the Commons […]

DAILY EXPRESS RED DEREK’S FURY By Peter Hitchens and David Jack TROUBLE-TORN British Leyland was last night tottering on the brink of complete shutdown as it felt the full fury […]

DAILY MIRROR A Leyland spokesman said that Mr Robinson, a toolmaker and a member of the Engineering Union, had deliberately incited workers to revolt against the survival plans. He added: […]

Mr Robinson’s final confrontation A thorn in the side of management and unions By Clifford Webb Mr Derek Robinson, the communist sacked by BL yesterday, first came to prominence at […]

British Leyland vesterday dismissed Mr Derek Robinson. leader of the unofficial BL shop stewards’ committee. in the biggest management challenge yet to shop-floor authority.. The dismissal was greeted by disbelief […]

American dealers call for decision on MG By David Felton Worried American car dealers who hold BL franchises are pressing the British company to reach a speedy conclusion on the […]

More BL men found asleep on night shift From Our Correspondent Oxford Three days after 13 workers were dismissed after being found asleep during the night shift at the Land […]

Sleeping men’s supervisor is dismissed By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent BL yesterday completed disciplinary hearings into the case of the sleeping paint shop men by dismissing the superintendent in […]

BL dealer network near collapse after defections to European car groups By Clifford Webb Sir Michael Edwardes, BL’s chairman, is fighting to prevent the collapse of his entire UK dealer […]

DAILY MIRROR Leyland Dozers Sacked By Chris Hampson Fourteen night shift men caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant have been sacked , a wife claimed last night. She said: […]

WHERE A LACK OF INCENTIVES IS A BARRIER TO PRODUCTIVITY By Nick Boulter, Longbridge November 1977 to March 1979, the last year as TGWU shop steward ‘Whenever the track stopped, […]