Sit-in No.17 as NW
1972Stephen JohnsEngineering Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
meet MANCHESTER:
From Stephen Johns WORKERS occupied a 17th Manchester plant yesterday • as employers met to review their strategy in the districtwide engineering pay battle.
Over 500 employees at Francis Shaw, Engineering, Openshaw, declared a sit-in after management attempted to suspend them for working to rule.
They are claiming more money and better conditions.
They are also certain to be joined today by 1,200 workers at Hawker Siddeley's Woodford plant who were under threat of suspension late yesterday.
After a meeting of the Engineering Employers' Federation in Manchester, a spokesman said:
'We are still insisting that demands for shorter hours and longer holidays should be negotiated at national level.' He said that the ban on piecework had obviously affected output, but the position was not yet desperate.
Meanwhile local Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions' officials met management at GKN's Bredbury steelworks, Stockport, yesterday.
The 1,000 workers have been occupying the plant there for three weeks.
John Tocher, AUEW district organizer, said that agreement Bredbury would be 'a tremendous breakthrough'.
But he added that he was. not expecting an immediate settlement.
Bredbury workers are demanding a £10-a-week wage increase, a 35-hour week and longer holidays.
The £10 increase is to bring the lower-paid steel workers into line with •wages earned by 200,000 Manchester engineers who are demanding, £4.,
Press,