£4 rise averts car closure
9 July 1970
THE GUARDIAN
A total shutdown of the car industry was averted yesterday when the 650 strikers at Lucas, Birmingham, voted to accept a £4 a week offer from the management, and returned to work. It is expected to take about a week to restore normal supplies of electrical parts.
A spokesman for British Leyland, which has been stockpiling thousands of unfinished vehicles at Longbridge, said the threat of dislocation would continue until sufficient parts had arrived to produce complete cars. Jaguar, which stopped output at Coventry a week ago, is to restart production, is to restart production on Wednesday with a progressive return to work of 1,500 employees who have been laid off. The firm expects to be back to normal on Thursday. It will have lost 1,600 cars worth £3 million.
Rover is resuming normal production at Solihull, Warwickshire, today but will be building cars without certain electrical components. The situation is to be reviewed tomorrow.
More news from the archive
Tue, 23 Jun 1970
By CLIFFORD WEBB The first new car designed from start to finish by British Leyland since the British Motor Holdings-Leyland merger...
Tue, 30 Jun 1970
By CLIFFORD WEBB, Midland Industrial Correspondent The 650 men striking at the Lucas die-casting and plastics factories in Birmingham...
Thu, 02 Jul 1970
THE GUARDIAN Car union leaders yesterday rejected a plan put forward by the British Leyland Motor Corporation for the creation of...
Sat, 04 Jul 1970
DAILY EXPRESS Production of Jaguars at Coventry has been stopped and 1,500 workers made idle. Both Rover and British Leyland's Austin-Morris...
Wed, 08 Jul 1970
THE GUARDIAN Jaguar has abandoned production at Coventry, laying off 1,500 workers, and 1,000 Rover workers have been sent home from...
Sat, 11 Jul 1970
By CLIFFORD WEBB All car production except that of the Maxi stopped at British Leyland's Cowley plant yesterday and 2,200 workers...
Tue, 14 Jul 1970
THE GUARDIAN By Anthony Harris British Leyland is holding talks with Innocenti, the Milan engineering company which makes the BMC...
Thu, 16 Jul 1970
DAILY MIRROR British Leyland is the largest vehicle manufacturer in this country. In six months it has lost between £8,000,000 and...
Fri, 17 Jul 1970
THE GUARDIAN The windscreen shortage has already brought the Jaguar plant in Coventry to a standstill, resulting in 1,700 lay-offs,...
Tue, 28 Jul 1970
Up to 400 British Leyland men have been working through their two weeks holiday to help clear large factory stocks of incomplete cars....