An Ultimatum from Austin's
The strike at Austin's Longbridge motor works has dragged itself out for nearly five weeks. The net results have been considerable hardship for, ten thousand men and their families, and a loss in output of fifteen thousand vehicles. It is hard to believe that the National Union of Vehicle Builders, who caused the stoppage by calling out their two thousand members at Longbridge and consequently depriVing another eight thousand employees of work, seriously thought that they could force the management to accept the principle that a shop, steward is a privileged person who must be given preferential treatment in matters of redundancy and re-employment. No management could accept such a principle, and Austin's rejected it emphatically when on Monday they issued their warning that if the vehicle builders were not back at work on Friday they would be considered to have left the company's employment. The general secretary of the union, for his part, said blandly that they would be prepared to accept settlement on the basis of the reinstatement of Mr. John McHugh, the senior shop steward, whose dismissal with some hundreds of others, on grounds of redundancy, started the trouble. This, of course, is exactly what. Austin's, in view of the way in which the union has elevated the case of Mr. McHugh to the realms of principle, cannot do without conceding that principle. The vehicle builders' fight has been lonely, unprofitable, unpopular, and not in the least glorious—unless they have evidence of victimisation which they have kept carefully concealed. Con- sidering the small comfort they have had from the T.U.C., that seems unlikely.
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