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. 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 . A plan by the unions to fight for a mass-volume car manufacturing was truncated when Robinson was sacked by British Leyland in November 1979. 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. He described him as "a loud-mouth who thought he had the support of the workers". 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. 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. 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. Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson led a long-running battle against management at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge throughout the 1970s. Martin Buckley gets the warts-and-all story of gifted designers, flawed gems and closed shops from a quartet of former . 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. A firebrand union leader and former British Leyland worker has died aged 90. 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. This year's foundling is British Leyland's first new Rover sedan in 13 years. That had to be the responsibility of management.. Underinvestment and a lack of new models had resulted in BLs car market share falling dramatically. Product details page for Corgi Original Omnibus Leyland PD3 'Queen Mary' Southdown NBC is loaded. Williams Lyons. Indeed it almost looks like Corsas, Combos and Vectras had a salmon pink colour option! The Unite union said the "dedicated life-long trade unionist" fought for "the rights and future" of workers. As a young man, his first job was selling the newly launched Maestro at a BL dealership in his native Cumbria. Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar Cars Ltd., died in his sleep this morning at his home near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. She said: "My husband rang to tell me that they have all lost their jobs.". Former Leyland worker Stephen Cox said Mr Robinson was regarded by many as "way out on an extreme". The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. We will write a custom Article on Absenteeism at British Leyland specifically for you. British Leyland, Britain's largest automaker, faced bankruptcy in 1975. "These words are a suitable epithet for a stalwart of the trade union movement, whose passing we mourn.". Your email address will not be published. It was incredibly the first new model to come out of Longbridge for seven years, but also notable for the utilisation of modern robot technology to produce it. Belated attempts to set up acceptable new output targets had been resisted by the Shop Stewards. Security officers kept watch from behind an extractor fan in a paint shop from where they could see a clocking point. Undermining the shopfloor So says Simon Pearson of his time at the much-maligned British Leyland. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Dubbed Red Robbo by the press, the Communist Party memberrepresented workers in car manufacturing during the pre-Thatcher era, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Lancashire's workers have increased the amount of hours they put in by 1.5% since . 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. Workers were to occupy and work in to prevent closures. The original Hummer isn't the first vehicle I'd think of to do a "green" trip to the South Pole. British Motor Holdings merged with the Leyland Motor Company to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation on January 17, 1968. Mr Robinson led the fight back, organising hundreds of disputes. This support saved brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini from . When questioned the men said they had completed their work quota. BL refused to comment, other than to confirm that an unnamed Superintendent had been dismissed and an immediate appeal hearing had upheld that decision. But the political mood of the country was changing. 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. So that was the sleeping on the night-shift affair. 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. The men said that, when they had done their work, they should be allowed to go home. Even today, there are certain professions where . 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. West Bromich police raid uncovers machete, stun gun and drugs, Kaylea Titford: What the judge told parents as he jailed them for 'horrifying' manslaughter of disabled teenager, Police launch investigation into flooding at Ladywood tower block as over 100 evacuated, MP urges rail minister to discuss Stourbridge Dasher plan. 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! We are looking for a Children's Residential Support Worker to join an outstanding Children's Home. Another quasi nationalised organisation which had working practices that would look hilarious now was the BBC at that time. 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 foremens office. DeSantis won't say he's running. Exterior view of British Leyland Strandard Triumph works entrance and gatehouse at Canley, Coventry . 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. He worked variously for Morris, Austin, BMC, BLMC, BMLH, Leyland Cars, Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover- Triumph Thats roughly a new corporate brand every 10 months and on the launches of the Allegro, 18-22 Series, TR7 and XJ-S. At that time, BL had the biggest advertising budget in the UK, he says, and we gave Saatchi its first-ever car account, which was the Princess., Dapper, silver-haired Alan Zafer, who began at MG, goes further: It was probably the greatest range of cars under one umbrella. The Daily Mail claimed that the car firm British Leyland was paying bribes, and was exposed for printing a ludicrous hoax. Over 50,000 workers across British Leyland immediately came out on strike, including the 20,000 workers at Longbridge in . The men said that, under BLs Measured Day Work system of payment, they were entitled to leave as soon as they had completed their output target for the day. Learn how your comment data is processed. It wasnt cheap steel.it was steel that was galvanised on one side only..the idea being that the galvanised side went towards the wet..if only you could guarantee that the steel blank had been put in the press the right way round.. My father and his work colleague both had red S reg 2600 Rovers from new. Ultimately it meant most of the industry disappeared as merchant shipbuilding went abroad and the few yards that survive now only do so because of defence contracts. From the Shop Stewards point of view BL management had entered into an agreement with them to end piecework and, a few years later, they were trying to renege on the deal. The ADO15 MINI IS LAUNCHED TODAY Some extracts from the Times description of the new, NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY NEWS; Jaguar Is Planning To Cut Production AP Published: Thursday, February, Production of British Leylands new Morris Marina was at a standstill last night following a, British Motor Holdings the joining of BMC and Jaguar, Opinion : Celebrating 40 years of the Austin Maestro, The cars : Austin Maestro (LC10) development story, The cars : Land Rover Freelander (CB40) development story, Opinion : Austin Maestro a tale of unfulfilled promise, Opinion : Why unrest plagued the Maestros launch, The cars : Vauxhall Cavalier Mk3 development story, eBay Find of the Week : Rover 45 with less than 2k miles on the clock, Archive : Jaguar Is Planning To Cut Production, Archive : Strike by 80 halts Marina output. Once part of the sprawling British Leyland automotive empire that epitomised Britain's industrial decline . In the morning when they woke up they had large banging on the door it was the police. Kearsley has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cars, down to the colour names and options, combined with a strong urge to save these underdogs. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. DAILY MIRROR. I am worried sick." Fearing that its collapse would leave a million workers unemployed, the Labour government nationalized it. "He was a very competent man in private life he was very kind and very caring.". 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. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. On unveiling day, the company boasted, 100,000 Britons packed into showrooms to see the car and placed orders worth . The incident would be reported to the management and judged on the circumstances. Mr Robinson was involved in an estimated 500 disputes at Longbridge. From Our Correspondent Birmingham. Transcribed & marked up by Einde O'Callaghan for ETOL.. A survey by a Superintendent at Oxford Exhausts, a factory making most of BLs exhaust systems and petrol tanks, found employees, dozing in various parts of the factory.. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Ian is unable to help with technical queries he pays other people to fix his cars! Where can you get quick classic car insurance quotes? Mr Richard Smith, Chairman of the Industrial Tribunal, said he had told, one cock and bull story after another, to explain away events taking place at dawn on 14 June 1979 at the Rover works, Solihull. The company refused to comment while a hearing was still continuing into charges against a Superintendent. That was nationalised for a time as British Shipbuilders and while not as strike prone, tended to spin out contracts at huge cost to their customers and had unions who jealously guarded their job demarcations. Our picture shows Maureen Crook and her seven woman party, wives of striking workers at British Leyland's Triumph No.2 factory in Speke, with their petition of over 1000 signatures for Prime Minister Jim Callaghan. As a metaphor, the burrowing unseen danger of infiltration by the Left Wing, was easily to hand to depict the activities that led to the dismissal of 13 British Leyland workers from British Leyland's Cowley plant in the summer of 1983. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. At the time the industrial giant was believed to be the sixth largest car manufacturer in the world, with 11 marques - Austin, Austin-Healey, Daimler, Jaguar, MG, Morris, Riley, Rover, Triumph, Vanden Plas and Wolseley - and factories across the globe. Only three men, none of them Mr Yates, had gone to the clocking point before 6.45 am, the end of the shift. The company assumed its current name in 1982. Initially, the workers came out in support of Mr Robinson, he said. 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. As shop . But if the SD1 receives a vote of confidence, what about the great unmentionables the likes of the Allegro, Marina and Princess? The plant . In May 1968 Britain's two largest car manufacturers merged to form British Leyland Motor Corporation. The hours I spent with Simon, Richard, Alan and Tim confirm that belief. A little later, through a window, he saw two men, naked from the waist up. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. "He's seen as a troublemaker, someone who resisted attempts to modernise," he said. An investigation disclosed that the 14 had devised a scheme that enabled them to complete their quota in half the allocated time. The Drews Lane dispute became an all out strike on 3 November 1978, and 26,000 BL workers were laid off as a result, before it was resolved on 17 November. 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. Be the first to rate this post. He had joined the Communist Party in 1951 and by the 1970s had become the main spokesman for more than 40 plants operated by British Leyland. We had a LDV van at work for about 7 years. 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. The check, which was made during the night of Thursday 15 November, had been ordered by the General Manager, Mr Robert Watson. Appointed in 1977, the combative South African businessman Sir Michael Edwardes cut the number of workers almost in half at British Leyland, from 172,000 to 90,000. Mr Lampett, who joined Rover 22 years earlier as a Tool Setter, said: I believe I have been treated very harshly. At one stage one in eight pounds spent in Britain were with Tesco. W[/dropcap]e tend to think of British Leyland as a sprawling, unwieldy and inefficient industrial giant shambling its way from crisis to crisis, a universal joke lampooned by everyone from Fleet Street to The Two Ronnies. British Leyland would once again become a privately-owned company and the size of the state sector would be reduced. And apart from the stupid steering wheel, the Allegro was pretty good, and a lot less labourintensive to produce than the 1100/1300., Was the UK press quicker to stick the boot in when things went wrong than they were in, say, France? But instead of supporting him, the workers who gathered that February day turned on him. A quote from Austin Rover Managing Director Harold Musgrove (right) from 1984 underlines that. A stalwart of the Norfolk Mini Owners Club for nearly a decade he is an enthusiast for all things Issigonis. Only British Rail and its curly-edged sandwiches ranked lower in the publics estimation. Five minutes afterwards Mr Yates came out. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. BLMC was created in 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by the Wilson . A communist, he had led 523 walkouts at the Birmingham car plant during a 30-month period, gaining the nickname Red Robbo from journalists and becoming an increasingly divisive national figure. The spokesman at the Land Rover plant in Solihull: We do not condone sleeping or dozing in working hours.. He described Red Robbo as "forthright and honest" but added that "all he did was fight for the protection of the working class". 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. Thatcher provided British Leyland with 2.9 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) of taxpayer money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said. 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