Move To End B.M.C. Stoppage Fails

The strike by 132' workers at British Light Steel Pressings, Acton, which had caused 4,600 people in the Rootes factory at Coventry to be laid off, ended yesterday when the strikers agreed to go back on Monday. But hopes of a settlement in the British Motor Corporation dispute, which has made more than 20,000 workers idle, were dashed last night after they had risen when a meeting was called at Birmingham between the management and union officials.

The talks, which were arranged at short notice at the request of the Ministry of Labour, broke down in complete deadlock. Mr J. T. Bolas, the Electrical Trades Union's Birmingham area secretary, said that he met Mr Arthur Burton, the B.M.C. labour director, at Longbridge for an hour.

"The B.M.C. merely reiterated the offer they have already made. They had nothing new to offer and there was nothing which we could accept," he said.

By last night half the labour force at the tractors and transmissions works had been rendered idle and hundreds more will have to be sent home today if the stoppage continues. The 132 strikers at British Light Steel Pressings, a Rootes subsidiary, at a meeting at the factory at Acton, were told by the shop stewards' committee that talks with the management on their grievance would start at once if they resumed and they then agreed to go back on Monday. The dispute is over a wage claim.