Month: November 1979

Geoffrey Robinson MP, former Jaguar boss writes to the Times. BL management From Mr Geoffrety Robinson MP for Coventry, North West (Labour) Sir, Your leader ” At Stake: 100,000 Jobs […]

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, […]