Emergency' warning at British Leyland

British Leyland yesterday warned 65,000 employees in its Austin-Morris factories that power cuts and strikes have created "a very serious emergency The company said in its works newspaper: "In the first week of power cuts alone we lost between half and three-quarters of our potential production. Some plants produced virtually nothing at all. We lost 2 million man hours and almost half of the available working hours of the corporation."

Pointing out that the troubles could restrict future pay rises, the message said the latest holdups had come on top of a series of strikes this year which had already caused serious production losses.

"The remedy is a long period of uninterrupted production, completely free from holdups of any kind. This is the only possible solution and the need for it is urgent ". it added.

Production workers at the Austin-Morris car assembly works at Cowley, yesterday supported their shop stewards' rejection of the company's latest pay offer. They agreed to ban all overtime and oppose any extension of shifts.