Jaguars hit by walk-out
21 March 1969
DAILY MIRROR
By PAUL CONNEW
Fifteen hundred key car workers walked out on strike yesterday — In sympathy with workmates who claim they have become £20-a-week " laughing stocks."
The strike closed down Jaguar’s components plant at Radford, Coventry. All production, including the export winning XJ6, is threatened. The 1,500 assembly workers came out in protest against the use of "blackleg " labour by an outside arm of electrical contractors.
The Arm, G. P. Marson Ltd., of Coventry, used supervisory staff to maintain equipment at Jaguars after a strike by thirty-six of their maintenance men. The thirty-six walked out a week ago. They claimed they had become a laughing stock at the factory because their earnings are only £20 a week.
Now the men are demanding a £6 10s. a week rise—to bring them into line with Jaguars' own electrical maintenance staff.
Last night shop steward James Moulson, spokesman for the maintenance men. said: "Supervisors should not do our work. They should only check it afterwards."
A Jaguar spokesman said: "The original strike is not our affair and there is no justification for today's walkout."
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