The Triumph dispute rumbles on and on

By R. W. Shakespeare

Nearly 10,000 workers are idle because of labour disputes in the Midlands vehicle industry, Any hopes of early settlement receded yesterday as militant action was renewed. The biggest problems centre on British Leyland's Triumph car operations in Coventry where a mass meeting of workers yesterday voted for continuing a strike by 1,000 assembly track workers and the decision by other workers that they will not cross picket lines.

In all, 8,000 other workers in Rover-Triumph plants in Coventry, Liverpool and Birmingham are idle because of the stoppage by the assembly track men, now going into its second week. They are demanding payment for time lost during a two-week strike by white collar control room staff in the Coventry assembly plant

Mr Eddie McGarry, chairman of the Rover-Triumph joint shop stewards' committee, claimed yesterday the company had been offered an "honourable compromise" over the lay-off question. This, it is understood, would have put a strict time limit on the period for which the company would be required to make lay-off payments in any single dispute. However, British Leyland appears to be refusing to budge on the long-established principle of not making lay-off payments to men who are made idle by disputes within their own plant.