More idle in car plants

THE GUARDIAN
By GEOFFREY WHITELEY,
Northern Labour Correspondent

More workers were made idle in the car industry yesterday, mainly as a result of continuing disputes at factories of the Austin-Morris division of the Brtish-Leyland group. Falling demand for car bodies following reduced output at assembly plants led to the laying off of nearly 1,000 employees of the Pressed Steel Fisher factory at Swindon. The situation at Swindon was agravated by a local strike of British Road Services drivers, which affected deliveries to the factory.

The laid-off workers joined another 100 at the PSF plant at Oxford , who have also been made idle because of disputes at BLMC plants. At the Cowley assembly works of BLMC, 126 electricians who have been on unofficial strike for more than a week over a pay dispute, decided yesterday to continue the stoppage.

Production problems continued to trouble other parts of the car industry. Five hundred workers are laid off at the Jaguar factory at Coventry, because of lack of disc brakes after the strike at the Girling factory at Bromborough, Cheshire.