Car plant back to normal

Work was back to normal yesterday at the Morris Motors assembly plant at Cowley, Oxford, where 1,000 production workers had to be sent home at lunchtime on Thursday because 300 men in the paint shop had stopped work.

Production on three models was held up by the stoppage. The paint shop men's dispute was over the quality of certain material used in their processes. After recent unofficial disputes at Cowley a notice posted yesterday on notice boards at the factory said restriction of output on the part of some workers in the factory was contrary to the established practice and conditions of employment and constituted a fundamental breach of the contract of employment.

"The management believe that the majority of its employees are gravely concerned about these restrictions and the consequent dislocation of production," the notice stated.  "If such action continues the management must of necessity close the departments concerned with an inevitable effect on supplying companies and also on those workpeople who have not taken part in such restrictions of output. . . . Any individual subsequently re-engaged may be treated as a new employee with no credit for past service."