I am sure that the BMW workplace union leadership did all that they could to try and negotiate a more humane way of handling the sacking of the long-term agency/BMW workers. But why the secrecy?

Convenor Bernard Moss summed it up with his statement to the Oxford Mail that they were under instruction from the company and “could not give out information … and that it would be a brave person to defy that”.

The threat is real enough, since Cowley has a history of good shop stewards being sacked when trying to represent their members.

It is, nonetheless, an indictment of the way that UK companies can treat union representatives.

It totally disregards the representative’s responsibilities and their accountability to the union’s membership as a whole.

It proves, yet again, that the balance of real power is still stacked against the employee.

What kind of system is it which leaves workers’ representatives to deal with such a serious situation on behalf of their members, while fearing that even one indiscrete word would get them the sack?

The Government must do more to protect the rights of employees and their union representatives. The current safeguards against dismissal for trade union activities does not seem to be working when a threat can stop a union convenor from speaking out.

JOHN FRAY, London Road, Wheatley, Oxford