Jaguar to hear strike committee formula

Workers Press no. 851, 25 August 1972 · scan page 4

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FULL-TIME union officials may meet management today with new proposals to end the nine-week-old strike at Coventry's Jaguar car factory.

Jaguar is anxious to settle the dispute and union officials have been urging the strike committee to arrive at a formula acceptable to the company so that work can be resumed.

Earlier this week they asked for an inquiry into the circumstances which led to the rejection of the employers' latest offer at a mass meeting on Tuesday, and from which 40 per cent of the strikers were said to be absent.

Strike leader Mick Richards said yesterday that after nine weeks the determination of the strikers to secure a substantial across-the-board increase was going to be difficult to break down.

Jaguar have offered the 2,000 men an interim flat-rate rise to £44 for a 40-hour week pending talks on a new wage structure to replace piecework.

The men have so far strongly resisted Measured-Day Work, which British Leyland, who own Jaguar, are trying to introduce throughout the combine.

Jaguar's latest offer would give about £3 a week extra to the lower paid, but many track workers already earning f44 would gain nothing.

Mick Richards said there was a danger the deal had split the men. Tuesday's meeting voted two to one to continue the strike instead of the usual unanimous decision.

The strike committee has agreed a new formula which fulltime officials are expected to put to management today.