Carburettor Men Told To Go Back

FROM OUR LABOUR CORRESPONDENT
PORTSMOUTH. SEPT. 5

Strikers involved in the inter-union dispute at the Birmingham factory of S.U. Carburettors Ltd. are being instructed to resume work while negotiations are held between the two unions concerned. Officials of these, the Transport and General Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Engineering Union, agreed on this today after talks in Portsmouth, where they are attending the Trades Union Congress.

The dispute arose over the promotion of a T.G.W.U. member to be a tool- setter in a department organized by the A.E.U. The union representatives agreed today that he should not work as a toolsetter while their negotiations were in progress, although by arrangement with the company he would be paid as one. This arrangement will not continue later than the end of October, but the unions hope to have settled the dispute by then. About 900 men working on final car assembly in the Rover car factory at Solihull, Warwickshire, were idle yesterday because of the S.U. Carburettors' strike.

There was little change in the position in the British Motor Corporation group, of which S.U. is a subsidiary. About 250 men were still idle at the Austin factory at Longbridge but about 300 men at the sports car factory at Abingdon, who were laid off on Monday, were back at work yesterday. There was normal working at the Morris factory at Oxford and at the Nuffield Metal Products factory in Birmingham, where 6,000 men were laid off last week.