Mr X Strike

MR X STRIKE

A car factory which was paralysed yesterday by a strike over a "Mr. X" was back to normal last night. The strike started when a paint shop worker at Morris Motors, Cowley, Oxford, was sacked for bad workmanship. Nearly 700 men In the paint shop walked out. And " to prevent attention being drawn away from the real dispute."

Union officials refused to reveal the name of the sacked man . But last night the mystery man named himself and said: " I was unfairly treated."

Twenty five year old David Howes of Stradhampton, near Oxford, was sacked eight days ago after a complaint that a car wheel arch had not been rubbed down properly. He said he had not been warned before about bad workmanship . He hoped to get his job back. Union officials are to meet the management to press for his reinstatement.

The strike, strike, which led to 2,500 men being idle vesterday ended after a meeting last night between 50 shop stewards representing night-shift workers and officials of the three biggest unions in the factory. The meeting accepted by a large majority to start work immediately. A works conference will discuss Mr. Howe's sacking. One of the paint shop men—they earn between ￡35 and￡38 a week—said last night:

"We feel he was sacked as an example because lately there have been a number of rejects -car bodies sent back because of unsatisfactory work. It is impossible to continue quality work with the number of car bodies we have to handle. Speed is the basic cause of the trouble ."