I WRITE in response to the letter from Mr Andrew Cole of Unite. Clearly Unite is one of the more respectable unions. I was referring to the days of the unions at Morris Motors and Pressed Steel company and at Austin in Birmingham.

There were rabble-rousers who called for strike action with a call for “those in favour”. Hands went up and the motion was carried. Strike on.

There was a never a call for “those against” and it was rare for a full week’s work to take place. I had neighbours who set off to start work at 7am and were back home by 9am.

If someone had dared to oppose the motion they were jostled, spat at and life was made very uncomfortable.

I suspect in some cases management encouraged strikes when they had an excess of stock and wanted to clear the backlog. Even when on strike, the shop stewards still went in and got paid.

I apologise to Mr Coles for what was meant as a generalisation.

RW TUCKER
Kingsway Drive, Kidlington