Car industry hit by fresh disputes

By CLIFFORD WEBB

A fresh outbreak of strikes yesterday added to the miseries of the motor industry which already has 5000 men laid off at Ford as a result of the three-week-old Girling dispute.

All Jaguar saloon car production was at a standstill last night, with 600 men idle after 400 workers refused to cooperate on assembly line time studies and walked out. The management laid off a further 200.

A hundred men and women at Standard Triumph, Coventry walked out in protest against the management's refusal to find lighter work for a woman returning after illness. A similar number stopped work at S.U. Carburettors, Birmingham, the British Leyland subsidiary, over disagreement with methods employed to fill a vacancy.

But the major threat remains in the acute shortage of Girling brakes through the unofficial strike of 22 setters at Bromborough, Cheshire. The men are not due to meet again until Thurs- day but union officials are trying to persuade them to meet earlier in response to the court of inquiry's plea for a return to work. The six-man strike committee met yesterday and said they would be willing to meet anyone, anywhere, at any time in an attempt to reach agreement. Rootes Motors in Coventry, however, reported good news with the lifting of an overtime ban by 4,000 employees who make components.

Twice it has caused the widespread laying off of car assembly men at the firm's other Coventry factory and more lay offs had been threatened for this week.