Not just: " Lie back and Think of England"

Fighting job losses:

Not just: " Lie back and Think of England"

IN APRIL, Peugeot announced the closure of its Ryton plant in
Coventry with the direct loss of 2,300 jobs, which also threatens
another 6,000 jobs in the West Midlands car industry. Unfortunately, the
workers narrowly voted against taking strike action.

Alistair Tice

In a recent Guardian article entitled "Jobs we cannot afford to
lose", the leaders of the two main unions in the car industry, Tony
Woodley of the transport workers’ union TGWU and Derek Simpson of the
engineering union Amicus, called for British consumers to boycott
Peugeot cars.

TGWU leader Tony Woodley, TUC leader Brendon Barber, and Amicus leader Derek SimpsonAt the recent Amicus conference, Derek Simpson
(on the right in the picture left) launched the boycott
as a major union campaign. Taking advantage of World Cup fever, he said
that the unions were appealing to British consumers to: "Think of
England".

He explained that Ryton was a profitable plant but Peugeot wanted to
make even more profits by transferring production to a factory in
Slovakia where wage costs are a quarter of those in Coventry.

He said that Peugeot could do this because, as the General Motors
Europe boss had said recently when closing a shift down at its Ellesmere
Port Vauxhall plant, its easier for companies to sack British workers
due to our ‘flexible’ labour market.

Boycott

Derek Simpson said that the unions had to keep pressing the Labour
government to change these laws but in the meantime he urged consumers,
especially trade union members, to boycott Peugeot. He said if they
won’t build cars here they shouldn’t be able to sell them.

He claimed that if Peugeot lost just 4% of its UK market sales, it
would wipe out the economic gains of transferring production to
Slovakia.

Whilst superficially the boycott campaign seems attractive, it is
born out of defeatism and contains the dangerous seed of nationalism.

In relation to Ryton, Derek Simpson asked: "Do we walk out on strike?
What’s the point?" A leadership attitude that must have contributed to
the vote there against industrial action.

Furthermore he said: "Even a mighty union like Amicus is almost
impotent when faced with a multinational like General Motors."

Hardly a very awkward statement from a member of the awkward squad of
trade union leaders! In fact it smacks more of the ‘new realism’ of the
right-wing union leaders that Woodley and Simpson were elected to
replace.

The danger of such a boycott policy, however unconsciously, was
reflected in the comment of one delegate supporting it who said: "The
only good thing to come out of France is my Citroen"!

Ironically Citroen is now Peugeot’s sister company, which is also to
be boycotted! And what about Vauxhall? Amicus has a fleet of Vectra
cars, yet Vauxhall recently cut a whole shift on Merseyside and may
still move to close the entire plant.

Derek Simpson said in that case the union would cancel its contract.
But every multinational in the over-capacity car industry is closing
plants, sacking workers and transferring production in a ‘race to the
bottom’.

In any case, there is no mass-producer British car manufacturer left
for people to "Buy British" or "Think of England".

The other policy that Derek Simpson was strongly promoting was the
proposed merger of Amicus with the TGWU and GMB to form a ‘Super Union’.

This, he said, would give the new union more influence with the
Labour government, make it listen and deliver policies like the Trade
Union Freedom Bill.

But to his own question of "How can we turn Labour round?" he had no
answers beyond increasing Amicus members’ activity in the Labour Party.

But the hopelessness of achieving that was demonstrated the very next
dinner-time when only six delegates (out of over 1,000) attended a
meeting with the joint chairs of Amicus-sponsored Labour MPs!

"One world, one union"

Derek Simpson also argued that a merged union was needed to fight the
multinationals. In fact he said that even one union in the UK would not
be enough. International trade union unity, co-operation and mergers
were needed.

This is encapsulated in the Amicus slogan of: "One World, One Union".

But this approach is at odds with the "Think of England" campaign
with all its dangers of nationalism which could cut across international
trade union solidarity.

Whilst socialists, in principle, support trade union mergers, what is
most needed is a fighting union strategy that can mobilise workers in
Britain and internationally to save jobs.

Central to this has to be strike action by the threatened workers.
This hits the bosses in their pockets, especially at a profitable plant
like Ryton.

And it shows that the trade unions are serious about leading a fight
that can galvanise the support of the wider community and of other
unions in Britain and abroad.

But its true that where the bosses intend to actually close a plant,
as at Ryton, strike action on its own might not be enough. Socialists
would argue the need for workers to occupy the factory to prevent the
dismantling and transfer of production machinery.

Such bold action could make the occupied factory the focus of a much
wider community resistance, which could be organised through support
groups, demonstrations and blockades.

Then the trade unions could confidently approach other workers, such
as dockers and transporter drivers (members of the TGWU), not to handle
or move Peugeot cars, in solidarity with the strike and occupation.

This of course would be secondary industrial action, illegal under
the anti-trade union laws. These laws could be broken through such mass
action concretely arising out of the fight to save jobs.

Legal or government threats against the unions would have to be met
with appeals for broader trade union support up to the call for a
one-day general strike.

At the same time, an appeal could be made to French workers and
Peugeot workers in other countries to take solidarity action – initially
not doing any transferred work and then building for a Peugeot-wide
one-day strike across Europe.

In this context, trade unions might consider calling for a boycott of
Peugeot cars as an auxiliary to the campaign of industrial action, not a
substitute.

And certainly not under the dubious slogan of "Think of England" but
as part of an international labour movement campaign based on
working-class struggle and solidarity.

The campaign would be fighting to save all the jobs by keeping the
plant open, something that could be achieved by such a militant
campaign. This could either force Peugeot to reverse its decision or
force the government to step in.

But to guarantee these jobs and others in the long run the
nationalisation of not just Peugeot but the entire car industry would be
required.

And for that to happen we need a new mass workers’ party committed to
and campaigning for public ownership and a democratic plan of
production.