Strike Threat At Car Body Works

A notice of strike action by 300 draughtsmen at the Pressed Steel Company's car body factory at Cowley is likely to be given at the weekend. The men decided tonight to stand by the result of a ballot in which the management's offer on holidays was rejected, knowing that a strike was the logical outcome of this rejection.

Their decision will go to the executive of the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen who are expected to approve strike action. The men decided tonight to impose a ban on overtime immediately. The men were told by Mr R. Silverthorne, divisional organizer of the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen that if there was an official stoppage there would be "no cars rolling off the plant within two weeks."

Nine hundred men, working on the Morris Minor lines at Morris Motors, Cowley, Oxford yesterday were sent home at noon because the dispute at the British Motor Corporation's tractor and transmissions factory at Birmingham last week had caused a shortage of rear axles at Oxford. The men were asked to report for work again today.