Secret talks fail to avert strike

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 8

Secret talks fail to avert strike

NZPA London The board of British Leyland will meet today after secret talks yesterday with the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress. Len Murray, and leaders of the two main unions involved had failed to avert the crippling pay strike due to start on Sunday.

The board is due to decide whether to go ahead with its “corporate plan," which should be in Government hands by the end of this month.

Ray Horrocks, chairman and chief executive of B.L. Cars, has already told the workforce that the board is not prepared to recommend the corporate plan to the Government without the support of employees. The 1982 corporate plan includes investment programmes for new models and projects over the next five years — including the Metro and Acclaim — which are vital for B.L.’s continued recovery.

The plan contains forecasts of production and sales, factory rationalisation and other potential closures, as well as the company’s request to the Industry Secretary (Mr Patrick Jenkin) to release about $llOO million to be spent in 1982-3. This money is the balance of the $2178 million which the Government approved last year to cover this year and next.

It is thought the board will postpone making a decision, about the plan until the company has had time to assess whether the threatened pay

strike gets widespread support.

Although the 58,000 car workers have voted overwhelmingly on a show of hands to reject B.L.’s 3.8 per cent pay offer, the company’s chairman (Sir Michael Edwardes) wants to see how they will vote with their feet through the factory gates after Sunday’s strike deadline.

He has threatened to liquidate strike-hit parts of the company and is not prepared to recommend that the board should apply for the extra $llOO million if he does not have the support of the workforce. Meanwhile, the B.L. Cars trade union negotiating committee meets this afternoon in London to receive a report on yesterday's secret meeting.

This was attended by Mr Murray, Alex Kitson, acting general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, and Sir John Boyd, general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. They will report that no progress was made towards a solution. The Labour Party leader. Michael Foot, pleaded with Mrs Thatcher in the Commons for the Government to mediate, but she refused three times to intervene. She said the Government wanted B.L. to succeed but industrial relations were a matter for the company, and the Government was not seeking to influence the- company in the matter.