I am worried sick." He will give evidence today. 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? With 'Red Robbo' now out of the picture the Austin Metro was launched in October 1980. 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. The men at Drews Lane had worked to rule for several weeks in protest at management attempts to stop them leaving early. By Chris Hampson. Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection: Quirky hotel, good for parties and groups - Read 1,173 reviews, view 382 traveller photos, and find great deals for Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection at Tripadvisor. 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. One of the most notorious trade unionists in recent memory has died aged 90. For Mr Stevenson, the dismissal of Red Robbo was "the first shot in the war that Thatcher began against working people and their families". Buried deep somewhere in that automotive salmagundi: an old Punch magazine. It will prove that ordinary working people have got the intelligence and determination to run industry'. 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. No votes so far! The organisation specialises in providing best-in-class care and . He left school aged 14 to begin work at the Austin plant at Longbridge, initially as an apprentice toolmaker. The response was:Theyve been doing it for years., Wed been establishing targets, establishing line rates and achieving 60 per cent of the target, which meant that the track stopped for 40 per cent of the day. NICKNAMED Red Robbo, Derek Robinson became one of the most famous trade unionists of the 1970s and as the shop stewards' convener at British Leyland was the man responsible for no fewer than 523 . Slight wear at extremities of boards. What's he waiting for? DeSantis won't say he's running. Seven years ago Tony Cliff wrote, 'The aim of the . The men said that, when they had done their work, they should be allowed to go home. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. First edition. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. 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. Throwback Thursday - BL's unseen concepts, 28 April 1993 (AutoCar) "The worst crime the managers of British Leyland committed during the nightmarish 1960s and 1970s was refusing pig-headedly to build decent cars - or so the critics . Robinson was born in Cradley Heath, near Birmingham, in 1927, to a family of chainmakers. Absenteeism is simply defined as an individual's frequent pattern of evasion from an obligation or duty. Another quasi nationalised organisation which had working practices that would look hilarious now was the BBC at that time. Is the 1990 Ford Escort Bonus a classic car? 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. Underinvestment and a lack of new models had resulted in BLs car market share falling dramatically. So says Simon Pearson of his time at the much-maligned British Leyland. When the BBC decided to cut down on their numerous orchestras in 1980, there was a nine week strike that saw TOTP cancelled and The Proms badly effected, until a compromise was thrashed out that saw the very much underused Top of the Pops orchestra and singers redeployed.Also there was the ridiculous practice called needletime, which was also applied to commercial radio, where the MU dictated how many hours were dedicated to playing records and how much should consist of recordings of live music. Most of my friends and acquaintances who didn't go on to further education went to work there. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. This has not happened easily and Black and Asian people have often had to fight for their rights. Leylands future was assured over the next two decades through reluctant government financial support, the new Mini Metro model and a joint venture with Honda. What fire was my friends answer to which the policeman pointed to the mess of the building next door and the thirty fire engines surrounding it! 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. Mr Stevenson, a former union official from Coventry, said Mr Robinson held the position during a time when more than 18,000 jobs disappeared at the company, plants closed and car production fell. The British Leyland Motor Company, BLMC, was formed back in 1968. The UCPI is a damage limitation exercise by the British state, established in 2015 after the exposure of widespread use of undercover police agents against political organisations. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. It was at Longbridge that he joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) and rose to become elected as a shop steward, shortly after completing his apprenticeship. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Following his dismissal, Mr Robinson worked as a tutor in trade union studies during the 1980s and 1990s, teaching shop stewards. Your email address will not be published. An uncompromising and . BLMC was created in 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by the Wilson . It was cosmetic rather than structural rust but terrible for the cars reputation. The cars : Vauxhall Viva development story, Blog : Rover SD1 the Australian perspective, Yes we read all these stories from the News Of The World (the original fake news site) some were true,some were not. The sleeping on the night shift story went quiet until the New Year of 1980. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 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. Leyland Dozers Sacked. Martin Buckley gets the warts-and-all story of gifted designers, flawed gems and closed shops from a quartet of former colleagues. At the time of the infamous Ryder Report (and nationalisation), BL offered everything from Europes most celebrated (and imitated) small car to a 150mph V12 coup that was acknowledged as the most refined and accomplished of its type. Says Pearson: We had quite regular contact with DGS as he was known internally. It was a fantastic shape but, when I parked it, nobody looked at it. Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson led a long-running battle against management at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge throughout the 1970s. In 1981 BL entered into a joint venture with Honda Motor Company, Ltd., of Japan to produce Japanese-designed Triumph Acclaims in the United Kingdom. When we were given more money to buy, say, new transfer lines, says Seth Smith, we were restricted by government rules to buying sometimes inferior local tooling., Then there was the way that the cars were produced. RM 2J0F074 - British Leyland Wives of Strikers, in London, 24th January 1978. Initially, the workers came out in support of Mr Robinson, he said. However, someone should have really gone at Lyons (head of Jag) and put him firmly in his place. A Supervisor who was sleeping was also dismissed, along with a Foreman. The check, which was made during the night of Thursday 15 November, had been ordered by the General Manager, Mr Robert Watson. "He wasn't at all like what the media portrayed him as in the 1970s," he said. Ian is unable to help with technical queries he pays other people to fix his cars! Michael Edwardes, who has died aged 88, was the chair of the car giant British Leyland during the critical period of the company's transformation from 1977 to 1982. Hello there we are looking for witnesses to the fire next door can you help. Learn how your comment data is processed. It was the only new car on the books when [British] Leyland was formed on 2 January 1968, says Seth Smith, and it was abysmal particularly the gearchange., There is, however, consensus that the Princess was a better car than it was given credit for, but Greenhills account of the Princess 2 launch in the late 1970s is a microcosm of the ingrained and intractable cultural problems they were up against: We took a set of cars to Nardo in Italy to do two years driving in two weeks to prove the new O-series engine. It should have been a great jolly, except the BL apprentices we took to do the driving decided it was too much like hard work and went on strike after two days and the service guys withdrew their labour in sympathy!, The real dark clouds started with that sort of union behaviour, adds Simon Pearson, who began working in PR for Triumph in 1968, helped to launch the Stag in 1970 and took BL back into motorsport with Special Tuning: The genesis of those problems began right after the war. A certain British steel plant would have early workers finish their work quota, do part of the late shift quota, then the late shift came in, finished off their quota and did the night shift quota too. Am I being targeted by an overpayment scam? Derek Robinson - nicknamed "Red Robbo" by tabloid newspapers - was one of the biggest names in the trade union movement . leader of the unofficial BL shop stewards' committee. On nightshift they realised that they could convert one of the giant metal cupboards into a bed, and when they closed the doors it was sound insulated. What's he waiting for? THE GUARDIAN LEYLAND BRINGS IN BELGIAN BUILT MINIS Bri tish Leyland is to bring in several thousand Minis from its Belgian plant in DAILY EXPRESS LEYLAND REBELS IN NO CUTS STAND By Declan Cunningham Leyland shop stewards launched a last ditch campaign yesterday 90,000 BL workers to get copies of 'ultimatum' By Clifford Webb British Leyland's Nuffield Press subsidiary yesterday began rushing WHERE A LACK OF INCENTIVES IS A BARRIER TO PRODUCTIVITY By Nick Boulter, Longbridge November 1977 to March 1979, the last year as TGWU BL dealer network near collapse after defections to European car groups By Clifford Webb Sir Michael Edwardes, BL's chairman, is fighting Sleeping men's supervisor is dismissed By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent BL yesterday completed disciplinary hearings More BL men found asleep on night shift From Our Correspondent Oxford Three days after 13 workers were dismissed after being found American dealers call for decision on MG By David Felton Worried American car dealers who hold BL franchises are pressing the British British Leyland vesterday dismissed Mr Derek Robinson. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. This kind of thing was riff everywhere. He was dressed. Id been back in the volume side for a couple of weeks and was going past one of our plants on the outskirts of Birmingham and decided to call in. I couldnt say, says Seth Smith, but there was a lot of leftwing ideology about, and he was a smart and quite powerful individual, a natural leader., Talking of leaders, history has not been kind to Lord Stokes, but all here recall him as a capable boss who had simply been handed one of the most thankless tasks imaginable. Red Robbo speaks to striking workers at Longbridge in the 1970s. Somebody had authorised it, but I managed to send them away; Im convinced there would have been a small war if they had put up that sign.. Enter your username or email to reset your password. Seth Smith joined Leyland Motor Corporation as Triumph press officer in 1967, and in 1968 helped with the famous announcement of the Leyland and BMH merger. 13 November 1979. British Motor Holdings merged with the Leyland Motor Company to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation on January 17, 1968. The biggest problem was scabs of rust breaking through the paint all over the car within a couple of years. Then, on 16 November 1979, another BL plant was in the news for similar reasons. Sell Your Car On Honest John Classics For Free. Location: Leyland, Lancashire. 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. Did the media have it in for British Leyland? It was about two oclock in the afternoon. A company statement on the Superintendents discovery, said they had all completed their work quota. From Our Correspondent Birmingham. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or who resigned rather than be dismissed. Mr John Shayler, plant protection manager, said that at dawn on, June 14 he had seen a day-shift worker come in to their factory and knock on the door of the foremen's office. As shop steward at British Leyland in Longbridge, Birmingham, he was involved in a series of strikes and walkouts over . Belated attempts to set up acceptable new output targets had been resisted by the Shop Stewards. 2023 BBC. E 21 Government approves 30 million as first tranche of 100 million investment funds to British British Leyland s Rover workers at Solihull Leyland. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. The demise of the firm was nothing to do with the design and engineering. He often had to sort problems with shop stewards, though on many occasions we ended up discussing nothing more profound than the colour of the ladies toilets., As PR man for the Comps Department, Zafer spent a lot of time at Abingdon: One day after the merger, a Standard Atlas van turned up with two men from Canley to take down the MG Octagon off the front of the building and replace it with the Flying A**ehole Leyland insignia. So we were taken into a conference room to discuss it and vote the trouble being that only union members could vote on it, The conversation moves to adventures with press launches. Here, after all, was the worlds fourth-biggest car maker building the planets most complete and ambitious range of vehicles. A mass meeting of the men desided by a massive vote to ignore an official Union call for a strike. Mr Alan Walters, a Supervisor, said he had seen another man come from the office carrying a Land Rover seat capable of being used as a bed. The result has been the opposition of senior stewards to the toolmakers' strike earlier this year, and the fiascos of the April 20 strike against the Social Contract and the Longbridge strike vote in August 1977. In November of that year BL sacked Robinson for supporting the pamphlet titled A Trade Union Response to the Edwardes Plan, which criticised the plans proposals and the companys management. Im a former Austin Maestro owner, admirer and salesman, so it [] []. It seemed that if they werent being caught sleeping on the night shift they were standing on a picket line, the enduring images of TV news bulletins if your memory goes back that far. In the 1980s and 90s, Mr Robinson worked as a tutor in trade union studies, teaching shop stewards. Derek Robinson - Red Robbo - speaks to striking British Leyland workers in Cofton Park. Learn how your comment data is processed. The British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968. Lancashire's workers have increased the amount of hours they put in by 1.5% since . 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. 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. It wasnt just at BL. Yet surely using cheap steel on what was classed as an upmarket product was a big mistake and the Lancia joined the lesser Fiat Strada on the list of cars to avoid due to premature rust. "His legacy ought to be that you've got to fight," said Mr Loach. Exterior view of British Leyland Strandard Triumph works entrance and gatehouse at Canley, Coventry . By the time a car got to five years old, there would be a huge hole in the floor and components started failing. This British Leyland collection is diverse, huge and full of interest. The quota system mentioned seems to have been a relic of the deal to end piecework in the early 1970s. DAILY EXPRESS BUY BRITISH DRIVE FOR LEYLAND BOOST By David Benson An aggressive campaign to 'Buy British' is to be launched by Leyland British Leyland is to be granted a further 300m of state aid next year, with 133m to follow if the vehicle group's performance improves. DAILY EXPRESS BUY BRITISH By Peter Durisch Leyland chief Sir Michael Edwardes left Britain over Christmas with a special messagefor BL seals pact for Japanese to produce first car in Britain From our Correspondent Tokyo, Dec 27 BL and Honda today ratified an agreement Robert Taylor investigates recently released Cabinet papers that document the end of the 1974-79 Labour Government The newly-opened Mr Robert Yates, British Leyland foreman, last night lost a claim that he was. 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