'Two screws' strike men go back today

DAILY MIRROR
By Paul Connew

The two screws car strike was called off yesterday. Two hundred Vehicle Builders' Union members at the Standard-Triumph plant, Coventry, voted to go back to work today and let a high - powered union team investigate their dispute .

The unofficial strike begin last Wednesday. Vehicle Builders claimed the job of tightening two screws on the redesigned dashboard of the Triumph 2000 model. The works demarcation committee had ruled that the job should be done by members of two other unions — Amalgamated Engineering and the Transport and General Workers.

Because of the walkout, 700 other workers were laid off. Production of all cars, except the T R5 sports model was stopped. The jobs of another 9,000 men at the factory were threatened. Leaders of the three unions involved met at York to work out a peace plan.
They agreed to visit the plant for a first-hand investigation.

Yesterday's back-to-work vote was a triumph for the union chiefs. But the strikers said they "reserved the right" to quit again if this peace effort fails. A Standard Triumph spokesman said yesterday that laid-off workers were being recalled and production should be normal this morning.

But the firm still has strike trouble—a stoppage by fifty delivery drivers who work for an outside contractor. For the last two weeks, no finished car has left the plant. Now, the firm is using up its last few patches of storage space —including cricket and football pitches.

Though the Vehicle Builders are back at work the transport strike is expected to start affecting production after the next forty-eight hours. The delivery men. employed by Canley Cars of Coventry, walked out in a dispute over the closing of a depot. After the walkout, the men were sacked.

DAILY EXPRESS

The "screwy strike" at Standard-Triumph's Coventry works over who should tighten two screws on Triumph 2000 dashboards was settled yesterday when the 200 men agreed to an inquiry by the three unions involved.