The dream of corporate management - a divided and inactive workforce - is being played out at Rover. T&GWU National Automotive Secretary Tony Woodley is betting everything on the alternative bid led by former Rover manager John Towers, despite the immediate prospect that BMW will simply sell up to their preferred buyer, venture capitalists Alchemy. Talk of nationalisation, Government intervention, London demonstrations, industrial or direct action, has all been shelved.

On Wednesday (Apr 19), Rover stewards met at the Gaydon Training Centre in the West Midlands. Although the Towers bid had already received “union backing”, this was the first time the stewards found out what it entailed.

Last month, their previous meeting agreed to “oppose the break up of the company, which will result in plant closures and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs” and endorsed “the JNC position of mounting a campaign of opposition to bring about an alternative solution”.

On 1 April 100,000 people marched in Birmingham and were told, “They will not take the Mini from Longbridge, because if they try we will be at the gates to stop them.” Ford Dagenham were welcomed on the demo.

Ten days ago MSF West Midlands Regional Council resolved that “ownership of Rover, which BMW has given away, should now be transferred to the public sector”.

How are these concepts reflected in the Towers plan? If BMW accept the bid, Rover will be broken up and the Mini will move to Cowley, while the Government’s role remains obscure.

Tony Woodley spelled it all out in a bravura performance which won applause, despite the U-turns.

He explained that the hated Alchemy plan implied 10,000 redundancies straight away. Indeed, the Guardian has since reported (20 Apr) an estimated 19,000 job losses in the West Midlands if Alchemy get their way with Longbridge. Woodley then said the Government had declined to nationalise the company although they were willing to give unspecified help. In this context, he had asked John Towers to head up an alternative bid with Rover dealers. Towers agreed “the next morning”.

Neither Woodley nor anyone else has revealed when the Towers plan was conceived. It was a secret in Birmingham on 1 April but almost immediately afterwards GMB General Secretary John Edmunds mentioned a new “consortium” during a television interview.

Towers had involved some component suppliers as well as distributors. Alchemy, by contrast, would have no dealers on board and no-one knows how they would sell their cars.

Woodley had met the Government and BMW in support of the Towers plan, which originally included proposals to buy the Cowley plant and the Mini. When BMW said no, the bid was trimmed back. The next move was to accept the Land Rover sell-off in order to raise the money needed to finance the Towers’ bid. That left Longbridge, Swindon, and the Power & Train and so far, the bid only deals with Longbridge. In reality, Towers’ plan is to move the Mini to Cowley in exchange for the R75.

Towers is not proposing to buy the R30 research division as it was too expensive. Therefore, the aging R25 and R45 models will have no replacement unless the new company strikes an as yet purely hypothetical deal with Honda or Chrysler.

According to Woodley, the Towers plan involves 2,210 redundancies. But whatever prospects Longbridge or Cowley may have from these arrangements, the Rover workforce is being split - permanently.

Several stewards told the meeting that despite BMW’s promise to consider the bid seriously, the original Alchemy plan is already in train. Longbridge workers have received letters allocating them to other plants. Those allocated to Cowley are now under intense pressure from Rover management to declare immediately whether they intend to transfer or renounce their right to do so. Gaydon workers are getting the same treatment. The obvious interpretation is that the Alchemy bid is being processed right now. Indeed, according to the Birmingham Evening Mail (Apr 19) Alchemy’s Jon Moulton will set up a week in advance of the original timetable, i. e. now.

Longbridge stewards put the impending disaster straight to Woodley: what’s your fallback plan if this bid fails? “I don’t believe in defeat, I can’t see we’ll lose out on Towers’ bid,” he replied.

Another steward described Towers and Alchemy as both carrying on selling aging cars with no replacement. The Independent on Sunday (16 Apr) revealed Towers was losing £31 million with his current company, so why should he have our confidence?

The London demo should continue and the membership should be out fighting for nationalisation, the meeting heard.

Woodley argued the Rover workers and their unions had to “face reality” and Towers was the best bid.

The Towers plan was not put to the vote.

Layoffs at the Longbridge plant began on Monday (17 Apr) and will run until May 8, a long window of opportunity for BMW to make their move to dismantle the site without any involvement of the workforce, who may have no way of finding out until after the event.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, Convenor Adrian Ross told LabourNet “this is the most dangerous time. There’s nothing planned in the way of physical action but as Bill Morris said ‘nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out’.”