Dear all...

Please see below about a blatant victimisation of a principled trade unionist, as part of the bosses' onslaught on pay and jobs and the specific crisis in the car industry.

Please urgently send messages of protest to the email addresses below.

If you're in a union, please pass a resolution of support and send a copy of the resolution to Rob (his email address is below).

Funds will be needed for the campaign, please let Rob know if you could collect monies from mates, workmates etc.

Cheers,

Hugh Caffrey,
Socialist Party
www.socialistparty.org.uk

Statement 6 May 2009

Rob Williams sacked by brutal bosses
Step up the struggle

Rob Williams, trade union Convenor of Linamar Swansea, was sacked by the Linamar management last week, and then temporarily re-instated following militant action by the Linamar workforce.

Disgracefully, however, Rob today had his sacking confirmed. Negotiations between Linamar management and Tony Woodley took place all day in London, but Linamar did not shift.

Meanwhile at the Swansea plant Linamar revealed their brutality. Massive intimidation of the workforce took place - including foremen going around the shop floor threatening workers with the sack if they dared walk out in support of Rob. The bosses even went to the ludicrous lengths of removing the door from Rob’s trade union office.

This brutal action by Linamar is an attempt to return to the nineteenth century. What Linamar do not realise, however, is that all hell is going to break loose when workers, both in the Swansea and the wider labour movement, hear how Rob and his members have been treated.

The official reason for his sacking was “irretrievable breakdown of trust” - one of the most blatant excuses to behead a trade union organisation ever used in any factory. Rob’s record in standing up for his members, both inside and outside the factory, is second to none. However, what is at stake here is not the fate of one individual but the right for workers to be represented by the best militant fighters.

This sacking has to be totally opposed. The union has promised rapid action to organise a ballot for an official strike, but the anti-trade union laws mean this could still take up to a month between the ballot and the strike action actually taking place. That time, which must be kept a short as possible, needs to be used to pull out all the stops in support of Rob. Messages of support and donations should flood in.

If Linamar are allowed to get away with this, no convenor or shop steward, either in the already weakened car industry or in the wider trade union movement is safe. Allow the employers to inflict a defeat here and no trade unionist, shop steward, let alone a convenor, will be able to put their head above the parapet without the bosses seeking to cut it off.

Workers are facing the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Big business is doing their utmost to make sure that it is the working class that pays for the crisis. Militant, fighting trade unionism – symbolised by Rob Williams and the union organisation in Linamar – must not only be preserved but strengthened in order to prepare the working class for the capitalist offensive that is under way in Britain and worldwide.

Continue to phone protests to:

and Socialist Party Wales: socialistpartywales@btinternet.com

And an update from Fri 8th May...

It has become clear why Linamar management sacked Swansea Unite Convenor Rob Williams on Wednesday. Group President Brian Wade outlined to Tony Woodley the Company's 'proposal' to lower terms and conditions within the plant.

This will involve 'buying down' (worsening) contracts with a one off 'sweetener' payment. There is no detail of amounts yet but it is clear that it will involve a substantial drop in wages, worse sick scheme etc. Also, the Company announced that they fully intend breaking the agreement that they made with the union when they took the factory over last July of establishing a final salary pension scheme for those Ford-mirrored workers who were in the plant before Visteon spin-off in 2000 and the Visteon New Hire contracts who were subsequentoy employed later. He pretended to be concerned about the lack of a pension for the lowest tier in the plant - yet Linamar refused the union's call for them to get a pension last summer!

Therefore, the timing of Rob's sacking is of no surprise. It comes a week after 140 workers were made voluntarily redundant, including a number of senior stewards and before the pay deals are concluded for two of the three contracts. Incidentally, one of the last straws could well have been when the Ford-mirrored members refused Wade's 'offer' to refuse the 5.25% Ford pay rise. This has always been seen in the Plant as the yardstick for all contract negotiations.

Clearly, Linamar correctly had no confidence that Rob would recom m end these attacks to the members. Now the choice for Swansea workers is clear - fight the sacking of Rob and defend their terms and conditions and pensions and their right to work in a place free of intimidation or face a future of attack after attack. In Canada before Christmas all but one Linamar Plant had their pay cut by 10% by email!! The only plant that didn't suffer this was unionised. Sooner or later, bullies like Wade and Linamar will be confronted by a workforce, tired of being pushed around and walked over. It will inevitably happen, in Canada, China or Swansea. With its great fighting traditions, Swansea workers could be in the forefront of defending their rights.

Continue to phone protests to:

and Socialist Party Wales: socialistpartywales@btinternet.com

Unite General Secretary Tony Woodley will be addressing the workforce next week to push for a Yes vote in the impending strike ballot. Swansea Trade Union Council and the Linamar Shop Stewards Committee will be holding a public meeting at 7.30pm in the Dolphin Hotel in Swansea next Wednesday open to all trade unionists - "Defend trade union freedom - defend Rob Williams - support the Linamar workers!"

Hugh Caffrey