On the perimeter wall of Abingdon’s older Cemetery there is a bike sign. Cycle Racks were there in Spring 1969. They are gone now but the sign remains as a memorial to the cycle racks – presumably they were put there for the workers of the MG Car Plant nearby.
The MG Car Plant held a grand celebration of 50 years of the MG in Abingdon in 1979, ten year later.
After a speech, The Plant Director, Peter Frearson, raised a toast to the Mayor of Abingdon and people of Abingdon. He said “Here is to the next 50 years!”
The following Monday he received a phone call telling him to announce the closure of the Abingdon plant within the next 3 months.
I Read in the book “Turbulent Times in the Car Industry” by David Buckle, the Cowley Shop Steward …
“The stewards began a campaign to save the plant and their jobs and let the public know what was happening to this much respected car factory.
The management said that anybody who did anything to prevent the closure would be dismissed due to industrial misconduct and would lose all their severance pay.
The campaign against closure collapsed and the final irony was that each employee received a letter of thank for ‘assisting the Company in closing the plant down.’
A perfect example of why Industrial Relations legislation is needed, I would have thought.
However, much shareholders (I am one through pensions schemes and the like) pay in, they don’t make what the company sells. That is why working people need protection; it is their daily life and work, here and now, that gives investors a cushion for the future.