Archive for October, 1980
Archive : BL workforce split on call for strike
By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent British’ Leyland car workers yesterday voted narrowly to take strike action over the company’s pay offer. A meeting of shop stewards on Monday will now decide whether to call an all-out stoppage. BL Cars pointed out that fewer than half- the company’s plants had voted in favour of a [...]
October 31, 1980
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Archive : Metro workers call off ban
By David Felton and Clifford Webb On the eve of meetings of manual workers at BL plants to vote on the company’s 6.8 per cent wage offer, leaders of 22,500 white collar workers called off an overtime ban, which threatened to disrupt production of the Mini Metro. This was agreed after the company extended its [...]
October 30, 1980
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Archive : BL increasing Metro production target to meet heavy demand
By Clifford Webb The demand for BL’s Metro car is so great that Sir Michael Edwardes, the BL chairman, now proposes to use the whole Longbridge plant for its production along with the older Mini. This is a last-minute change in the business plan submitted to the Government on Monday to enable BL to increase [...]
October 29, 1980
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Archive : BL submits £400m aid plea to Government as vote on strike looms
By Peter Hill Industrial Editor Requests for further substantial Government financial aid were submitted to Sir Keith Joseph the Secretary of State for Industry, by BL yesterday as shop stewards organized mass meetings later this week to vote on recommendations for strike action over the company’s 6.8 per cent “final offer” to its 73,000 manual [...]
October 28, 1980
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Archive : The MG factory at Abingdon closes today
BL selling site as factory units By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent BL Cars, which has more than £30m worth of closed down factories and few prospective buyers, is going into the industrial estate business. The former car plant at Speke, Liverpool, is being split into factory units and will be known as the Triumph [...]
October 24, 1980
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Archive : The last MGB is produced today at Abingdon
The last MGB is produced today at Abingdon
October 23, 1980
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Archive : BL chief to ask for £325m state backing
By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent Sir Michael Edwardes, BL chairman, will be going to the Government next week for a £325m vote of confidence in the state-owned motor group. Riding on the success of the launch of the Metro, he is seeking £175m to put a potentially more profitable medium saloon codenamed LC10 into [...]
October 21, 1980
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Archive : BL unions reject final offer
By Clifford Webb Midlands Industrial Correspondent Trade unions representing 73,000 BL car workers yesterday rejected a final offer of 6.8 per cent by the company and called for shop-floor action to force the management to make a more “realistic” offer. Mr Grenville Hawley, chairman of the union side on BL Cars’ joint negotiating committee, said: [...]
October 18, 1980
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Archive : White-collar workers at BL vote to support overtime ban
HOME NEWS By David Felton Labour Reporter Mass meetings of white-collar workers at several BL plants yesterday voted to support the national overtime ban which has been called by union leaders over the company’s plans to start making up to 3.300 workers compulsorily redundant. Such a ban and refusal by staff to cover vacant posts [...]
October 18, 1980
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Archive : Further funds for BL depend on staff cuts, Sir Michael hints
By Donald Macintyre Labour Reporter British Leyland last night held firm in its dispute with four white-collar unions after a thinly veiled warning from Sir Michael Edwardes, the chairman, that the dismissal of up to 3,300 staff was essential to the future of its investment programme. The unions have called on their members to operate [...]
October 17, 1980
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Archive : Four BL white collar unions call for overtime ban
By David Felton Labour Reporter Four white collar unions have instructed their 22,500 members at British Leyland to start an immediate overtime ban in protest at the company’s plans to make 3,300 employees compulsorily redundant. Union leaders in talks with senior management last night gave a warning that they would also instruct their members to [...]
October 16, 1980
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Archive : BL go-ahead for £90m new Jaguar project
By Peter Waymark The board of BL has given an important vote of confidence to Jaguar by, approving the concept of a new range of luxury saloons to come on the market in the mid-1980s. A detailed programme for the car, code-named XJ40, will go before- the board at the beginning of next year. The [...]
October 15, 1980
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Archive : Metro strike ends
Forty rectifiers who had downed tools at Longbridge, Birmingham where Leyland’s new Metro is being made, ended their strike last night. The men went back to work on the recommendation of their shop stewards. Another 40 on the day shift are expected to follow suit today. Production of the new model was not affected.
October 9, 1980
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Archive : Metro launched today
October 8, 1980
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Archive : Mini Metro strikers agree deal
Production of British Leyland’s new Mini Metro car should be fully resumed on Monday after 500 strikers agreed to accept a peace agreement yesterday. The men walked out on Thursday in a dispute over one man who refused to be moved from the rectification area of the new Longbridge factory to an assembly line. Production [...]
October 4, 1980
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Archive : Metro launch is threatened by strike over one man
By Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent Production of BL’s new Mini Metro was halted at Longbridge, Birmingham, yesterday by a strike over management attempts to move one worker to another job within the plant. The walkout-by 500 colleagues threatens to cut deliveries to dealers less than two weeks before the Metro, which is vital to [...]
October 3, 1980
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