Lucas pay dispute halts Austin Rover

DAILY EXPRESS
By PAUL WtLENKJS, Industrial Reporter

AUSTIN Rover car production worth almost £11 million a day was brought to a complete standstill yesterday. More than 12,000 workers at the company's plants at Longbridge in Birmingham and Cowley in Oxford were laid off.

A pay dispute at Lucas Electrical has led to a shortage of parts. Output of the Rover 800 and Rover 200, Metro, Mini, Maestro, .and Montego is at a standstill. The firm turns out more than 1,800 cars a day. "We are waiting for supplies of light units but cannot build cars without the parts,"said a spokesman for Austin Rover last night.

"We hope that the new round of talks will produce a settlement but we are still waiting for the outcome of the dispute." If the crisis is not quickly resolved Austin Rover have said they will have to look for alternative suppliers in the long term.

But there was hope last night of an end to the troubles as both union chiefs and . management at Lucas said they will strongly recommend a return to normal working at the meeting today.