BREAKING NEWS JOHN ROUTLEY
It is with deep regret that we announce the death of John Routley, former Lucas Aerospace Combine member and dear friend.
John passed away on Saturday 11th September, unexpectedly.
OUR CONDOLENCES TO JOHN'S FAMILY ON THEIR LOSS OF A WONDERFUL AND COMMITTED MAN.
John's funeral will be held at 12:15 on the 8th October at Yardley Crematorium, Birmingham, followed by a wake at Yardley exservicemens Club.
The family has requested family flowers only but donations can be made to the Air Ambulance in rememberance of John.
Phil Asquith and Brian Salisbury
Tribute to Ron Mills
by
Brian Salisbury on behalf of former Lucas Aerospace Combine members and friends.
We are very sad to announce the death on Saturday 18th of June 2022, of Ron Mills, Liaison Officer of Lucas Aerospace Combine throughout its existence..
Having just been informed of the sad news of Ron Mills’ death, it brought back vivid memories of the time we worked together as fellow trade unionists at Lucas Aerospace.
Ron
and I first met up when working in the Defect and Investigation Department at
the Shaftmoor Lane site. I wasn’t politically active or involved to a large
extent as a trade unionist. As a result of contact with Ron and being
influenced by him through his observations in his quiet unassuming manner, he
awoke in me an urge to bring about political change through being active in the
trade union movement. His manner was not to preach socialism but to demonstrate
it through involvement at grass roots trade union level. As a result of
his encouragement I put myself forward and was elected to a number of union roles
in TASS and as Chairman of the Birmingham sites manual and staff Joint Shop Stewards’
Committee.
Ron
encouraged me to attend Combine meetings at Wortley Hall and it was there that
I really took off, realising the importance of grass root trade unionism at
company-wide level. This resulted in me taking an active involvement in
developing and promoting the Combine’s Alternative Plan (the Lucas Plan) and in
later years being elected as the Combine’s Chairman.
All
the time I was being supported and encouraged by Ron: he was always a
trustworthy and a loyal comrade and it was an honour to work alongside him as a
fellow trade unionist, knowing we were working on a day to day basis to improve
the living standards of our members.
As
well as encouraging me and many others, Ron was elected year on year as senior
TASS representative for the five Birmingham sites and Chairman of the TASS
Branch. While at Combine level he carried out the crucial task of Liaison
Officer, communicating news and messages that provided information to site shop
stewards between Combine meetings. At a time when the only means of
communication was by telephone, Ron’s role was crucial
Outside
of the work environment, he studied and achieved degrees in English, French and
a diploma in Shakespearean studies. This was not common knowledge but that was
typical of Ron; he was never one to promote himself or his achievements and
it’s to his credit that he regarded self-promotion by others as a weakness, not
a strength!
It
is without doubt that Ron Mills was an inspirational leader in a quiet
unassuming way, leading by example and selfless in his treatment of all those
he came into contact with. He was a committed socialist who put his politics
into action on a day to day basis through his trade union activity. He was in
pursuance of a better and more equitable world and his contribution during his
lifetime helped to achieve that. I was inspired by Ron, I valued his friendship
and I will miss our regular telephone conversations; goodbye Comrade and Rest
in Peace. My thoughts and the sympathies of all of us who knew and worked with
Ron are with his family at this very sad time.
Brian
Tribute
to Mike George
It is with great sadness that we mourn the death on Friday 3rd of June 2022, of Mike George, coordinator of the Centre for Alternative and Industrial Systems (CAITS), established at the North-East London Polytechnic by the Lucas Aerospace Combine in the late 1970s.
The outstanding work that Mike did at CAITS and the
people he worked with were immensely important to him and his socialism and
struggle for social justice never wavered. On behalf of the surviving members
of the Lucas Aerospace Combine and countless others we are sure, we would like
to express our heartfelt sadness to Mike’s wife, Linda and all of their family
and friends. We would also like to record our gratitude the inspirational work
Mike did with and for the Combine and other trade unions, which saved thousands
of jobs in Lucas Aerospace and beyond.
As far as the Lucas Aerospace Combine is concerned, there’s
no better example of the brilliance of Mike George, than his role as coordinator
of the Centre for Alternative Industrial and Technological Systems (CAITS); in
particular the key role Mike played in orchestrating support for the 14 union
representative CSEU Working Party in 1979, established by the Labour government
of the day in a reluctant response to the international support for the Lucas
Plan.
The Working Party had been elected by a delegates’
conference with a mandate to oppose the Lucas Aerospace management decision to
make 2000 workers redundant. The working party visited all of the LA sites with
the intention of investigating the basis of the management’s decision. Meetings
were held with site shop stewards and managers were questioned.
CAITS then provided the facilities for the Working Party
to draw up proposals for inclusion in a landmark report, which addressed and
countered management’s argument for redundancies.
Based on the working party’s investigation, Mike, along
with his CAITS’ staff then compiled a 200 page report entitled “Turning
Industrial Decline into Expansion - a Trade Union Initiative”. The contents
completely destroyed the management’s reasons for redundancies and proposed
alternative solutions which would have resulted in expansion of the
workforce.
The solutions put forward were based on proposals made by
the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards in its alternative Corporate Plan
(aka the Lucas Plan) for the company which it had launched in 1976. Central to
the plan was the inclusion of a range of products which answered social need, advocated
renewable energy to address climate change and challenged the throw-away
economy
Without the organising and research ability of Mike
George, the report wouldn’t have been compiled. Looking at it now brings home
to you the value of research support facilities in taxpayer funded educational
establishments, for trade unionists to counter management arguments.
Mike George provided that support and as member of that
14 union representative working party Brian Salisbury said ‘I will be eternally
grateful for Mike’s professional support and comradeship’.
Subsequently no compulsory redundancies occurred within Lucas
Aerospace.
The above is just one fine example of the countless projects and initiatives Mike led throughout his far too short life, working with the Combine and afterwards. Mike’s amazing contribution, his talent and not least his sense of humour will be sorely missed by us all.
Phil Asquith, John Routley, Brian Salisbury and Mike
Cooney
(For more about Mike George and CAITS click here)
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(Page revised and published on 30 March 2022)
This website has been established by surviving Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards’ Committee (LACSSC) stewards to recall the history of the Combine, its Alternative Plan (now known as the Lucas Plan) for the company and its campaign to have it implemented. It also aims to encourage other workers and community groups to follow in the Combine’s footsteps of shaping their own destinies by developing and pursuing their own “bottom up” plans.
Back in the 1970s Lucas Aerospace, which was part of the
Lucas Industries group, designed and manufactured components for the military
and commercial aerospace industries employing 18,000 employees on its 17 UK
sites.
To address corporate issues, the company’s nine works and
staff site trade union representatives established the LACSSC. The Combine, as
a recommending body to individual sites, set up advisory committees on
Pensions, New Technology and Wage bargaining and coordinated action when sites
were threatened with redundancy. Two Resource Centres were set up and jointly
managed by the Combine and the higher education body involved. Information on
all these issues was provided to the workforce through a regularly distributed
newspaper.
To combat a declining workforce the Combine, on the
advice of the Government’s Secretary of State for Industry, drew up an
Alternative Plan for the company which included the identification of dozens of
products, suggested by the workforce, academics and others, both to stabilise
the workforce and answer the unmet socially useful needs of society using the
existing skills of the workforce and available technology.
The Plan attracted both National and International
acclaim and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Whilst the management rejected the Plan, the campaign to
get it implemented put management on the back foot and prevented enforced
redundancy for 10 years.
Over
forty years later, renewed interest in the Combine’s
Alternative Plan resulted in:
* A conference, organised by the New Lucas Plan Group
(click here),
in 2016’ to mark the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Plan to apply the
same philosophy to a modern day setting.
* A documentary “The Plan - that came from the bottom up”
(click here ) involving
former Combine shop stewards was made by Steve Sprung a labour movement
activist and film maker.
* The trade union UNITE considering the Combine’s
Alternative Plan as a model for their members to adopt in their 2021
Environmental Report.
‘That is why in this Environment Quarterly we have
focussed in detail on the Lucas Aerospace Combine Alternative Corporate
Strategy. It is a template today for our reps to study and digest if we are to
fashion the future” Jim Mowatt UNITE Director of Education
* A former Combine shop steward contributed to a COP26
UNITE Conference in Glasgow in 2021. Click here for conference video.
* A former Combine Chairman interviewed (click here) by
Lowkey, the internationally famous Rapper and Peace Activist:
“This is Brian Salisbury one of the brilliant minds behind
the Lucas Plan of 1979, you are unlikely to have of heard of him or the Lucas
Plan because within it are the seeds of a radically different society…. Until
recently it seemed the powerful had successfully written him, his colleagues
and the alternative their plan represented out of the history books …… this
(plan) included products that rely on renewable energy such as wind turbines -
products that are now in common use” - Lowkey
Also there is part of a wide ranging interview conducted by
Lowkey with Roger Waters (internationally known solo music performer and past member
of Pink Floyd) regarding the Combine’s Alternative Plan. Click here to watch the interview.
Meanwhile Lucas Aerospace and its parent company Lucas
Industries, which in the 1980s employed 90,000 people, are no longer in
existence.
As a result of the interest created by the Combine’s 1976
Alternative Plan and its relevance given to the Climate Crisis, we as former
Combine shop stewards have for the first time produced our own website. In the
following pages the website provides details of the history of our Combine, the
Alternative Plan, related issues and post 2016 initiatives.
Many of the products identified in the Combine’s Alternative
Plan back in the 70s address the environmental issues now being experienced
with the emphasis being to replace fossil fuels with renewables. Amongst those
suggested were Heat Pumps, Solar Cells, Wind Turbines and Electric and Hybrid
propulsion units.
With
this in mind as former Combine shop stewards we have contributed to the ongoing
debate on how to tackle the Climate Crisis by putting forward the following
proposal:
AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN – Using resources and
technology that is people centred and respects the environment
by Brian
Salisbury, January 2022, former Lucas Aerospace Combine Chairman.
ABSTRACT:- For the complete paper click here
The following statement was compiled by former Lucas Aerospace Combine
shop stewards. We are proposing that an Alternative Plan for the UK is
developed by a combination of peace and environmental groups and trade
unionists that has socially useful production at its core, is people-centred
and in tune with the environment. We put forward this proposal based on the
belief that the above groups are opposed to the Government using technology to
manufacture armaments that threaten life at home and abroad. We realise that
such an initiative will require the organisations involved to step up their
current campaigning work by combining together; then develop and promote a
vision of a future U.K. which would include the necessary measures to address
the climate crisis.
We believe that the considerable experience and expertise that
exist in the above groups and the trade unions, qualifies them to produce such
a plan.
Most if not all of the groups referred to are aware of and support
the Lucas Aerospace workers efforts in the 1970’s to oppose job loss by
developing an alternative corporate plan, which not only proposed their company
manufacturing socially useful and environmentally sustainable products but
identified the process of how the plan was developed, with workers, the
community and academics collaborating. This resulted in championing a
worker/consumer led alternative industrial culture; not only proposing alternative
products but less alienating ways of producing them that empowered designers,
engineers and shop floor workers.
It advocated a circular economy that encouraged re-cycling and repair
and long- term sustainability in everything rather than the short-term throw
away culture that a system built on continual growth and private profit breeds.
We are of the opinion that the proposed plan for the U.K. should be
based on the same principles.
The statement’s aim is to highlight the government’s lack of urgency in
tackling the climate crisis and its policy of pursuing confrontation with
nations rather than cooperation, resulting in the ever increasing manufacture
and export of armaments. It highlights the financial and human cost of the Arms
Industry (2&3) and the means by which Transition (4) can take place
allowing the workers to switch to socially useful production.
Reference is made to the Government’s inadequate response to the Climate
Crisis (5&6) and the failure of COP26 (7) to deliver - whilst Pandemics (9)
are best prevented rather than cured! It’s proposed that the Alternative Plan
(8) has the Socially Useful (10) use of technology at its core and would be
best developed in a Centre (11).
While emphasis is centred on the arms industry, the same philosophy can
be equally applied to other sectors of the economy.
We consider that a Plan for the U.K. that tackles the climate crisis
with peace and justice at its core is people centred and in tune with the
environment, is in line with public opinion and therefore would get their
support.
For the complete paper click here
