Strike costs BMC £1m a day

Strike Costs B.M.C. £1M. A Day
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BIRMINGHAM, APRIL 4

As a result of the three days old unofficial strike of 3,000 day workers at the British Motor Corporation's factory, Longbridge, more than 5,000 cars have been lost. The cost to the corporation of the dispute is estimated at £1m. a day.

Today thousands of piece rate workers, who have been standing idly by their machines since the strike began on Monday over a pay claim by day rate employees, were told to go home. The nightshift at the Longbridge factory has been idle for the past two nights. The effects of the dispute have begun to be felt elsewhere in the B.M.C. group. The number of workers laid off at Morris Motors, Oxford, rose during the day to 1,700. A further 2,500 engaged on car body production at Fisher and Ludlow are also without work, and another 800 employees at Nuffield Metal Products have been told not to report tomorrow.

The strike has also affected supplier firms, and a spokesman for the Dunlop Rubber Company said that it had been necessary to put more than 1,000 workers on a four-day week at the factories at Erdington, Birmingham and Speke, Liverpool.