Axle workers vote to go back
1964The Newsletter Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Title, extent and credit checked against the scan (17 October 2026, from the scan: page 5 (printed page four), column 1 foot, 'Axle workers vote to go back', unsigned). The text is machine-read and not corrected: for anything you quote, read the scan.
STRIKERS at the Salisbury ¡ ransmission axe racior voted to return to work on Monday morning after a twohour meeting to discuss terms, on Saturday.
This strike, which the press claim has 'dislocated an export section of the motor industry for nearly a month', involved 250 members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.
Men at Salisbury Transmission were claiming an all-round increase in piece-work rates. According to the district organiser of the ABU the management had proposed a revision of some of the rates'. (Our emphasis)
Although the strike was declared official by the union leadership in the AEU no fight was put up to call on support from other sections of the industry.
STRONG
The axle workers were in a very strong position since the parts they supplied to other factories were essential before a car could be exported.
But instead of seeking to involve the men in the factories which were affected by the strike, the union officials merely left the axle strikers to fight on in isolation.
Now the management of Salisbury Transmission is probably in the position to arrive at a settlement on its own terms and not those of the strikers.
A win for the axle workers on the question of increased rates would have strengthened the position of other car workers in the Midlands in the future, this is what the car monopolists were so afraid of.