Relationship With Press, Sacking
Several left-wing commentators have suggested that Robinson was unfairly smeared by the press of the time, who habitually referred to him as "Red Robbo", and that contrary to their depiction of him controlling strikes at will, he in fact spent much of his time attempting to prevent unofficial strikes. This aspect was further examined by Ken Loach in part of an (untransmitted) documentary film series, Questions of Leadership (1983). Margaret Thatcher later described Robinson in her memoirs as a "notorious agitator". Many years later, Robinson commented "The pressures were immense but were it not for the ideological understanding that I had, I could very well have ended up with a nervous breakdown".
A 2002 BBC documentary series by Peter Taylor revealed that in the late 1970s MI5 had been attempting to undermine Robinson through an agent they had placed amongst his union officials; Edwardes stated that he had been "privileged to read minutes of meetings of the joint committee of the Communist Party and our shop stewards", which had been passed to him via the Government.
Robinson was eventually sacked by BL in November 1979 for putting his name to a pamphlet that criticised the BL management. A ballot on a strike in sympathy of Robinson and opposed to the dismissal was held but the motion not carried, votes being 14,000 against a strike and only 600 in favour. Taylor's documentary suggested that this was a result of the MI5 agent's activity, with Edwardes acknowledging that the removal of Robinson was in some ways necessary for the company's plans to produce the Austin Metro, which would have involved many job losses: "It was planned only in the sense...well, the answer is 'Yes', from a strategic point of view we knew that we couldn’t have the Metro and him. Whether or not we wanted him to go, his actions made it inevitable that he would have to go".
According to the BBC, "between 1978 and 1979 Mr Robinson was credited with causing 523 walk-outs at Longbridge, costing an estimated £200m in lost production".
Read more about this topic: Derek Robinson (trade Unionist)
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