[The Lucas toolroom bonus dispute, now in its…]
Socialist Press1977 1977-08-17Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 10
The Lucas toolroom bonus dispute, now in its seventh week, is affecting Leyland factories throughout the West Midlands.
As we go to press, workers on the Princess and Marina tracks in Cowley, and at MG in Abingdon have been laid off.
As Lucas is a major supplier of electrical components the whole car industry is threatened with shutdown.
More lay-offs are certain. Leyland, however, have managed to resume production on the Marina but only by flying in components from other countries, including as far away as Australia.
All Lucas management have come up with so far is the derisory offer of 49p on top of the existing bonus.
They have made an alternative offer to scrap the present bonus scheme and, in its place, establish a new bonus system whose details they are not prepared to reveal. This would gain an extra £1 per week.
These offers have been rejected and the dispute remains solid.
But it is essential for the toolroom workers to demand the AUEW fight throughout the motor industry unions for a black on all imported and home produced substitute components aimed at breaking the strike.