10,000 Car Men Idle

After two votes at a stormy meeting at Oxford yesterday, 206 maintenance workers at the Pressed Steel Company decided to end their unofficial strike which has put 12,000 other men in the car industry out of work.

They did so after union officials had pointed out the hardship they were causing. But the industry was still hit by other disputes. Although 7,000 Rootes workers at Coventry will be able to go back to work when car bodies start arriving again from Pressed Steel, 10,000 other Coventry men were without work yesterday.

The Jaguar and Standard-Triumph plants were at a standstill. Hopes of a resumption at Standard- Triumph were dashed when the 6,000 production men on strike since last Friday decided yesterday to stay out. They will do so until the return of the maintenance and transport workers who meet again on Friday to review the situation on their pay claim. The production men stopped work in protest when supervisors took over maintenance duties.

TALKS ON BONUS
Jaguar have been at a standstill since Monday because of a strike of 750 key workers which caused 2,800 men to be sent home, The strikers meet today.

The Pressed Steel strikers at Oxford agreed to go back to work so that the seven unions with hourly paid workers at Pressed Steel can meet the company tomorrow to discuss the bonus they receive in lieu of piece work earnings. Officials of their union, the A.E.U.. also promised to look into the implications of the domestic agreement which binds them to other unions in pay negotiations. The strikers want their claim for a substantial increase considered on its own merits.