Shop stewards go back to work at BL

Members of the joint shop stewards committee at British Leyland's Longbridge plant returned to work yesterday, and reluctantly acknowledged the collapse of the strike they called 11 days ago to secure the reinstatement of their dismissed convenor, Mr Derek Robinson. They had sought to make a point by staying out for 24 hours longer than the men they called out.

The shop stewards have said that they are in no mood to make concessions when crucial pay talks resume. Management has suggested a meeting of the BL joint negotiating council next week, but so far the union side led by Mr Grenville Hawley, national secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, has not replied. One main stumbling block to a resumption is Mr Robinson's position on the JNC.