LR strike blockade
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• As 6,000 Land Rover workers began their first serious strike for seven years this week, the Government has warned the company's management that it will not provide the extra cash to fund workers' demands. Workers blockaded the Solihull plant on Tuesday, preventing managing director Tony Gilroy from entering.
The management claims it has given its "final offer on grade rates", which is a combined increase in basic, and productivity rates of 14% over two years. The Amalgamated Engineering Union, represent ing the striking workers, claims that the offer represents only an 8% increase of the basic rate, with "several strings", including the credit transfer of wages to workers' bank accounts. The union wants a "significant increase in the guaranteed basic rates".
The strike coincides with Government privatisation plans as well as an investment policy for a number of new models and power units to meet the challenge of Japanese competition in the 1990s. The Prime Minister is understood to be concerned about the overheat ing effects on the economy of a round of high wage settlements, and is prepared to sit out a long strike whatever the consequences rather than settle early like Ford.
The strike might also have serious consequences for Freight Rover Van, which manufactures Sherpa vans. The Anglo-Dutch manufacturer is a supplier of pressings to the Land Rover factory, and a customer for the Land Rover 2.5litre IDI diesel and vee-eight petrol engines.
The company has "some stocks" of the engines ready to fit into Sherpa vans and has diverted the production of its toolroom to press work on Daf cabs for its Eindhoven factory. The effects of a drawn-out dispute, however, could be serious for the van manufacturer, and other suppliers to Land Rover.
Land Rover will lose about £3 million a day at showroom prices while the strike continues. Waiting lists for the Land Rover and the Range Rover are about four months at present, and there is a risk that customers may switch to the Japanese products.
One dealer said that "over 80% of the factory's production has someone's name out before it is even built, and there are no spare vehicles out there", but he added that most of his customers would prefer to wait for a Land Rover rather than buy a competitor.
The Union answers criticisms of the damage it may be doing by claiming that its members are "sensible and reasonable people", who have "democratically voted to strike". One negotiator hoped that the company would start negotiations this week, although he was not too optimistic.