Stokes in talks with white collar unions

Lord Stokes, chairman of British Leyland, yesterday met leaders of 40,000 white-collar workers as part of his plan to improve labour relations within his car empire. National officers of the four major white-collar unions put forward a number of suggestions to Lord Stokes, to Barry Mackie, personnel director and Pat Lowry, director of industrial relations.

A joint statement issued last night said the meeting "was to enable Lord Stokes to outline to the union officials the nature of the corporation's industrial relations problems and enlist their support and cooperation The union side made a number of constructive suggestions which Lord Stokes will carefully consider."

Unions represented were the Clerical and Administrative Workers, the Draughtsmen's and Allied Technicians Association, the Association of Scientific Technical and Managerial Staffs led by Clive Jenkins, and A.C.T.S.S., the white collar branch of the transport workers' union. The chairman has alreadv held a similar meeting with leaders of the manual unions.