Strikes

Leyland's problems were eased slightly when transport drivers on strike at the Pressed Steel Fisher Coventry plant decided to return to work on Monday. But a new threat to car production loomed when 95 tool-setters and tool room workers at their SU Carburettor factory at Erdington, Birmingham, went on strike over a pay dispute.

The plant, employing more than 1000 people, produces carburettors for almost all Leyland vehicles and for some other manufacturers. A spokesman said last night there would be progressive effects on production. Probably the most serious strike, involving 1,200 workers at Leyland's service depots at Oxford, is continuing, a mass meeting decided yesterday.

THE GUARDIAN

There will be a return to work on Monday at the Coventry plant of Pressed Steel-Fisher, where 300 workers have been idle because of a go-slow by drivers. Talks will be held on the drivers claim for wage sharing when one of them is away from work. The dispute had interfered with van production at the British Leyland plant.

British Leyland's production of Morris 1000 cars is threatened by another Pressed Steel-Fisher dispute which has made over 2,000 workers idle at the company's Common Lane plant in Birmingham. The strikers – 650 storemen and internal drivers – are protesting about the terms of a new productivity agreement.