Obituary: Derek Robinson, 1927-2017 Courageous Struggle Of Car Workers' Leader

Former British Leyland senior steward

- Bill Mullins

Derek Robinson, one of the most famous trade unionists of the 1970s, has died age 90. He was convenor of the Longbridge car plant in Birmingham and chairman of the British Leyland shop stewards’ combine committee.

Derek was seen by the capitalist press as the most influential shopfloor leader in British industry. They dubbed him “Red Robbo”, though he was never known as that by his members.

He was sacked by Michael Edwardes, managing director of British Leyland, in September 1980. This was after he opposed Edwardes’ plant closure plans in a pamphlet published on the authority of the combine committee.

Over 50,000 workers across British Leyland immediately came out on strike, including the 20,000 workers at Longbridge in Birmingham.

My own plant in Solihull, where I was senior steward on the Rover SD1 line, also came out. ‘On the Track’, the Socialist Party publication about workers’ struggle at British Leyland in that period, gives more details.

Edwardes, in his book ‘Back from the Brink’, spends many pages describing how bosses planned Derek’s sacking.

He writes at one point about a pay dispute that broke out across British Leyland. He says Derek “talked the men out, my estimate is that 80% did not back the strike… but were too frightened to reject the ‘out of the gates’ call… militant hoodlums had put barbed wire across the main gates at Longbridge.”