More takeover in auto The British lose their Rootes By JOHN WILLIAMSON ment to t "T of Rootes ie opposition q ers and in he Chrysler take- Motor Co,—de- from the Rootes Parliament itself ar industry will ds of Americans. invested §24 Rootes din 1964 and Percent share of tal and 65 percent feats shares. The as nt of the ly declared “the a Dited Fenster Out of the bee 4gdom contro] of po- € Rootes group.” Both an allaghan then jn expressed great con- a Precisely this would dod, fo wdemned it. Retme. °r an additional in- nt of $20 million, Chrys- f 68 percent of : 7 ODE capi € non-y Over the right-wing Pen: m There ha hig 12°) government talk of that Chrysler —all of which aining a major- : directors on the BMent to | allowing the gov- Inority of Guecntse @ small The agreement by the Labor with special emphasis on Liz- wood, Scotland. But none of these commitments have the force of law. While there was considerable opposition on the part of the men employed at Rootes, by the trade unions and by over 60 Labor M.P.s who signed a pro- test motion against the govern- ment’s approval, the deal has been. pushed through. On the floor of Parliament Mr. Maurice Edelman, M.P. from Coventry North, protested at the “white- wash” used to defend the deci- sion; Mr. Michael Foot, well- known Labor left winger asked “What was the good of the government thinking they could send troops all over the world if they could not own their own industries?” while many others called for nationalization of the industry. This view was also ex- pressed by the Scottish Trade Union Congress. Even before the takeover was announced, the Rootes Co. was trying to impose a new wage system on its workers that it calls payment for “measured daywork.” The men, under the leadership of the shop stewards have refused to agree and nego- tiations between the company and the unions broke down. - Transport and-General Work- ers Union regional organizer Harry Urwin said the company proposal will endanger tradition- al rights and is a trend towards “industrial authoritarianism”. In the background is the fact that the existing American auto firms —Fords and Vauxhall—have the system of hourly payment, while all British firms have operated on the piecwork system. Be- cause of the strength of the union workers on the factory floor, piecework rates have re- sulted in much higher earnings. For instance, in'1966, the hourly earnings for semi-skilled workers in the auto industry who worked on the piecework system aver- aged twelve shillings and six- pence while for time workers it was only nine shillings and sixpence. With the Chrysler takeover of Rootes. the competition will ieach new intensity in the indus- try. During the last six months the process of takeover has gone on steadily: Jaguar was swallow- ed up by British Motors Corp. (B.M.C.): Rover by Leyland; and now Rootes by Chrysler. Each of the Big Three have been spending millions of pounds in new expansion programs —Fords at about £40 million a year over the last 5 years; Vaux- hall (G.M.) between £25 and £30 million this year alone; the B.M.C. a mere €¢12 million a year, although it.-has just launched an expansion plan that will cost © £100 mililon by 1970. The Rootes ‘Corp. could not compete but Chrysler with its world wide ‘investment programme amount- ing to £610 million, hopes to enter the heated competition in Britain. The American companies, with more capital investment at hand (Ford £3,650 per worker; Vaux- hall £2,680) compared to B.M.C. result has always been that be- with only £1,240, are able to extract more profit out of the workers. For instance in 1966 the trading profit per employee compares as follows: B.M.C. £303: Ford £537 and Vauxhall (G.M.) £1,006. Previous articles have already ai Md, hom. [emste-controlled robot, makes light work of cleaning a car at the Yorkshire, northeast 0 UGH me tPe5 a Sins 12 io = Jts inventor, 42-year-old Dennis Weston. Tinker can do 180 separate movements and rc motors, a zoom-TV camera eye, a memory and 29 channels for receiving signals. ff described how the workers in the motor car industry have taken the main blow of the ‘Freeze and Squeeze’ policy of the right-wing Labor govern- ment. The B.M.C., after laying off 12,000 workers, said these men “should not regard the sit- uation as purely temporary.” Of the other 40,000 who were working short time some have recently returned to a 5-day week. But 11,000 continue on a 3-day week. The Ford Co. who - -portion of total invesment in boasted that it would ‘‘ride out the storm” has now laid off over 3,000 workers. Negotiations have also open- ed up between the 22 unions and the Ford Motor Co. The latter rejected out of hand the unions’ claim for a substantial wage increase for its 45,000 workers. The chief spokesmen of the unions pointed out that between 1962 and 1965 the num- ber of vehicles produced annual- ly per worker rose from 11.7 to 15.6—a productivity increase of 32 percent. Sales of Ford vehicles per worker increased during the same period by 48 percent, but hourly rates of pay for Grade 1 workers increased only 1514 per- cent and Grade 2 workers by 14 percent. It was precisely in the 1962- 63 months that Fords launched its big offensive against the workers, engaging in a lockout and refusing to rehire’a so-called “hard core’ of militant shop stewards and one chief shop steward—amongst whom were outstanding Communists. The trade unions failed to stand firm in defense of these factory-floor leaders, after months of hearings and inquiries. The Chrysler takeover pin- points attention on the steadily mounting process of American penetration and takeover of key British industries. In 1950, U.S. direct investments totalled $800 million. By 1957 this had grown to $2-billion. By 1964 it had risen to $414 billion and by now it is at least $5 billion. While this is still a small pro- British industry its significance is three-fold: (1) its rapid growth; (2) it flows into and becomes dominant in certain specific mo- dernized industries; and (3) it pays back higher profits than is averaged in the rest of British industry. Aside from the auto industry, American firms control practi- cally the entire typewriter in- dustry; 75 percent of the output of carbon black; and big stakes up to 40 percent in the comput- er, oil, chemical, agricultural machinery, printing .and boot and shoe machinery, detergents vacuum cleaners and _ other household goods. The president of the Board of Trade, Douglas Jay, said last October that there were 1,500 companies in Britain, with net book assets of over $5 billion, which were owned or controlled by U.S. firms. Very significantly, if one takes Britain, West Germany and France together, 40 percent of American direct investment in these countries is concentrated in three firms—General Motors, Esso and Fords. around the world LIBYAN STUDENTS held a sitdown at their country’s em- bassy in London to protest persecution of students in Libya. Em- bassy officials told them to leave in an hour or their scholarships would be discontinued .. . The Indonesian government has started to hand back industry that wag nationalized in that country... Hundreds of Danish professors, scientists and intellectuals have backed advertisements in\ Denmarks’ three largest papers calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. * * WEST GERMAN PRESIDENT Heinrich Lubke has handed down a ruling forbidding acceptance of a French medal by Dr. Klara Marie Fassbinder. ‘‘Little Klara the Pacifist,” as Miss Fass- binder is widely known, was awarded the medal for a lifetime of devotion to translating and editing the works of Paul Claudel, France’s diplomat-poet. “Little Klara” is a member of the German Peace Union, a pacifist group which is friendly enough to the Com- munist Party to be suspect. Observers note the effort of Lubke to extend his presidential powers which are now largely nominal,.. Sea waves can now be converted into electrical power by use of a device invented by a Soviet scientist who feels these devices can replace breakwaters and will be able to run power stations for industrial use. © * * A joint statement pledging united struggle against the’ draft, for improvement of housing conditions and for Puerto Rican inde- pendence was issued by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, the Movimiento pro Independencia, and the Federa- cion Universitaria por Independecia in Puerto Rica... The U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid, has protested the proposed loan of $40,000,000, by the First National and Chase Manhatten Banks, of the U.S., to the racist South Africa government. February 24, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Poge 9