Leyland threat
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
PRODUCTION of Leyland's goods vehicle ranges could stop this weekend at the Leyland and Bathgate assembly plants if 1,300 strikers at the Albion axle plant in Glasgow do not return to work.
The Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers declared official the strike — against a Leyland call for compulsory redundancies if 146 volunteers do not come forward (CM, May 14) — earlier this week, after the company warned that the plant could be closed.
According to Leyland, only 20 volunteers had still to come forward for redundancy this week, and there are still six weeks before the deadline expires.
Leyland has warned that assembly will have to stop this week as stocks of axles are diminishing. It has written to all Albion employees, saying it is prepared to buy axles from outside suppliers and could close the plant with the loss of over 1,700 jobs.
It also says that an outside customer has stopped buying axles from Albion. Leyland is not saying who this customer is, and Coles Cranes (100 axles a year) and Shelvoke and Drewry (around 300 a year) denied that they had stopped dealing with Leyland.
Hestair Dennis buys about one gearbox each week from the Albion plant and does not anticipate any immediate problems if the strike is prolonged.