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. So that was the sleeping on the night-shift affair. Strikes co-ordinated by Mr Robinson cost British Leyland 200m in lost production, according to chairman Michael Edwardes Former Leyland worker Stephen Cox said Mr Robinson was regarded by many . Buried deep somewhere in that automotive salmagundi: an old Punch magazine. Giving the Tribunals decision, Mr Smith said it should be made clear that Mr Yates dismissal predated others, which came after publicity given to workers found sleeping on a night shift. The general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, said: Derek Robinson was a dedicated lifelong trade unionist who fought, as convenor, for the rights and future of the then British Leyland workforce at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham during the 1970s. 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 media had a story: so-called political extremists at British Leyland's Cowley plant. A little later, through a window, he saw two men, naked from the waist up. 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. He hopes his friend will be remembered as "one of those stalwarts in the post-war era that maintained a better life for ordinary people", not as an "agitator" or "destroyer" which he said was "a complete invention". 1970 Ferrari 512M track test Group 5 great driven at Paul Ricard, Driving the legendary Bentley 3 Litre and Bentley 4 Litre. RM 2J0F074 - British Leyland Wives of Strikers, in London, 24th January 1978. One factor perhaps not widely understood is that chronic under-investment meant that many major components were being built on pre-war tooling, whereas the Germans, for example, had all the latest kit. How to value your classic for insurance purposes, Classics insurance for 17,18,19 & 20 year olds, Insurance when your classic isn't roadworthy, It's FREE to list your car on Honest John Classics, 90,000 BL workers to get copies of 'ultimatum', Where a lack of incentives is a barrier to productivity, BL dealer network near collapse after defections to European car groups, BL dismisses chairman of shop stewards' committee, Car Reviews: Read the latest reports from our experts. 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. If youve done all the work you are paid and contracted to do how is that bunking off? If you want to see the true horrors of 1970s workplaces, have a look at the ship building industry. Good condition, owner's inscription on flyleaf. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. A stalwart of the Norfolk Mini Owners Club for nearly a decade he is an enthusiast for all things Issigonis. 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? Derek "Red Robbo" Robinson, who has died aged 90, was the firebrand British Leyland workers' representative whose sacking in November 1979 came to symbolise Margaret Thatcher's . But the political mood of the country was changing. That had to be the responsibility of management.. 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. Mr Lampett, who joined Rover 22 years earlier as a Tool Setter, said: I believe I have been treated very harshly. History will show that Derek was unfairly maligned by the media as he aimed to find solutions to British Leyland's industrial disputes and turn around the car company." Derek Robinson, trade . Duration: 0:05:15. . Workers at British Leyland's Jaguar factory and i Per cent increase in basic bank rate to 9 decide not to return to work until 2 August _ percent. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. Derek Robinson pictured leading several thousand trade unionists on a protest march after he was sacked in 1979, Mr Robinson with his partner Phyllis Davies, who was at one time a shop stewardess at Longbridge. Classic car tax exemption: what you need to know. Undermining the shopfloor Do I have to update my blue V5 to a red V5C? 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. It would suck senior stewards into collusion with management and neutralise shopfloor activism. Where can you get quick classic car insurance quotes? 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. Fearing that its collapse would leave a million workers unemployed, the Labour government nationalized it. British Motor Holdings merged with the Leyland Motor Company to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation on January 17, 1968. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. A motion for a strike in favour of his reinstatement was overwhelmingly defeated - 14,000 votes against to just 600 in favour. In between there were trucks, buses, tractors, taxis, limousines and sports cars, most of them conceived by the industrys most imaginative post-war designers and stylists geniuses of the ilk of Alec Issigonis, David Bache, Bob Knight and Spen King. Learn how your comment data is processed. Following his death on Tuesday aged 90, BBC News examines his legacy. Opinion : Derek Robinson: Victim or villain? Mr John Share, personnel manager, said the company was satisfied that Mr Yates had allowed men to sleep on a night shift and had allowed clocking offences in which he had taken part. Im a former Austin Maestro owner, admirer and salesman, so it [] []. Whatexactly happened and whenare not easy to decipher. But at Drews Lane we still have an extraordinary situation. E 21 Government approves 30 million as first tranche of 100 million investment funds to British British Leyland s Rover workers at Solihull Leyland. 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 . Communist Party of Great Britain, Communist Party of Britain [1] Derek Robinson (1927-2017) was a British trade unionist. The biggest problem was scabs of rust breaking through the paint all over the car within a couple of years. British Leyland, Britain's largest automaker, faced bankruptcy in 1975. . A Supervisor who was sleeping was also dismissed, along with a Foreman. All this was occurring at the same time as the crisis confronting BL over its decision to fire Longbridge Convener Derek Robinson. Although Edwardes had a reputation as a union basher, Robinson supported the idea of working with him under a policy of participation, whereby unions and management would cooperate on matters of industrial relations. Yesterday they faced a disciplinary hearing. Fourteen night shift men caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant have been sacked , a wife claimed last night. British Leyland would once again become a privately-owned company and the size of the state sector would be reduced. "The Communist Party then dominated the factory's workforce, with many hundred Daily Workers [newspaper] being sold every day," he wrote in his blog. Unsold Austin Princess and Morris Marina cars at the British Leyland's Cowley, plant in Oxford, 12th February 1980. They made BL look like rank amateurs. Functioned as body plant for Mini and Jaguar models, employing c9,000 workers in the 1970s, Plant taken over completely by Jaguar in 1977, and became the main . As shop steward at British Leyland in Longbridge, Birmingham, he was involved in a series of strikes and walkouts over alleged mismanagement. Did the media have it in for British Leyland? I will leave the last word to Pearson, the man who got this fascinating group together: We all worked like hell to make it work, for not much money. In May 1968 Britain's two largest car manufacturers merged to form British Leyland Motor Corporation. Ultimately it would become nationalised as British Leyland, often referred to as just BL.In 1986 it was renamed to Rover Group.. History. 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. Do they take well to polishing, T-Cut, or is a respray the remediation? Vilified by the media as "Red Robbo" he was also betrayed, in the eyes of his supporters, by trade union bosses. Here, after all, was the worlds fourth-biggest car maker building the planets most complete and ambitious range of vehicles. 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. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: "History will show that Derek was unfairly maligned by the media as he aimed to find solutions to British Leyland's industrial disputes and turn around the car company. It was cosmetic rather than structural rust but terrible for the cars reputation. As a young man, his first job was selling the newly launched Maestro at a BL dealership in his native Cumbria. British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor . As for his Red Robbo nickname, Mr Robinson told MPs in 2000 he regarded it as a badge of honour. Where can you get cheap classic car insurance? The case against me was brought following publicity and not on the facts.. Over the years, my father's garage has become an elephant's graveyard of corroded metal, faded wiring diagrams, desiccated gaskets and other relics of a lifetime of Land Rover ownership. Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson led a long-running battle against management at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge throughout the 1970s. The size, militancy and determination felt on the pickets, demos and rallies show that the sleeping giant, the British working class, has stirred. Mr Robinson worked as an engineering apprentice during the Second World War, progressing on to become shop steward at a plant in Longbridge. After a tip-off by the News of the World newspaper, senior managers the previous week carried out a surprise inspection of the night shift in a paint priming shop. 9 January 1980. Am I being targeted by an overpayment scam? The pamphlet said: All our efforts and resources must be mobilised to change the policy of closures and contraction. Enter your username or email to reset your password. Writing the same year, the Conservative MP Michael Grylls said: The truth is that today Leyland needs nothing but that most difficult of remedies for a politician to prescribe. The former British Leyland worker and trade unionist Derek Robinson has died, aged 90. Kearsley has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cars, down to the colour names and options, combined with a strong urge to save these underdogs. I called into the Plant Directors office and said that Id like to look around to see what was happening. 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. A shame really as improvements to the Maxi, Princess and Allegro had made these cars as good as many of their European rivals and certainly British Leyland never had to endure the sort of scandal that was engulfing Lancia at the time, where poor rustproofing was causing the engines to fall out of relatively new cars. 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. However, the wife of one of the dismissed workers, Mrs Ray Pennell, of Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, said the management knew of the practice and had asked men to double-load the conveyors if production fell behind. Position: Children's Residential Support Worker. Stories from those at the coalface. We had a LDV van at work for about 7 years. The Question was as follows: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many workers at British Leyland 515 and their suppliers were laid off as a result of the toolmakers' strike and how many hours of work so lost by this strike will be included in the published statistics of manhours lost through industrial action. A spokesman said that they would consider taking action against anyone found dozing at work. 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. 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. This British Leyland collection is diverse, huge and full of interest. Hello there we are looking for witnesses to the fire next door can you help. 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. BL still conjures images of half-finished Marinas and Allegros on desolate production lines and a militant workforce that appeared to be looking for any reason to down tools. "These words are a suitable epithet for a stalwart of the trade union movement, whose passing we mourn.". One night him and his mate who were on the maintenance nightshift went to sleep in the cupboards. 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. DAILY MIRROR. Nicknamed Red Robbo in the press of the time, Robinson was involved in some 500 walkouts at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, the result of frequent disagreements between the companys management and unions over working practices. One of the most notorious trade unionists in recent memory has died aged 90. BL described this as potentially dangerous. He was a lovely guy, recalls Greenhill, when you werent in a meeting with him. Was he a communist infiltrator? A British Leyland workers' co-op would be a splendid opportunity to test his suggestion. 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. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Judge for yourself. Had similar on a 2002 406, at the door bottoms, possibly because of a bad seal. Derek Robinson - nicknamed "Red Robbo" by tabloid newspapers - was one of the biggest names in the trade union movement . He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or 'who resigned rather than be dismissed. 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? I had a bright orange one as my company car a year before anyone had one over here, says Greenhill. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. "But they are going to appeal against the decision. Then, on 16 November 1979, another BL plant was in the news for similar reasons. "But they are going to appeal against the decision. Security officers kept watch from behind an extractor fan in a paint shop from where they could see a clocking point. Learn how your comment data is processed. He was the main spokesman for the British Leyland combine committee which united about 40 different plants around the country, for most of the 1970s. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Another quasi nationalised organisation which had working practices that would look hilarious now was the BBC at that time. DeSantis won't say he's running. Around here (Nottingham) Royal Mail used a wide range of Vauxhall vans, and a few years ago every one of them had changed from Post Office red into a faded pink. He wrote in his 1983 book, Back from the Brink, that Mr Robinson had "kept Longbridge in ferment and upheaval" for years and "disruption and upheaval" were his "food and drink". The company refused to comment while a hearing was still continuing into charges against a Superintendent. 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