Leyland strike ‘would be dire’

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 9

Leyland strike ‘would be dire’

A threatened strike by British Leyland skilled workers could mean the end of the company in its present form, one of the company’s chiefs has said. Tens of thousands of jobs could be placed in jeopardy, said Ray Horrocks, managing director for Austin Morris and chief executive of the volume car ’division. “The consequences I am afraid, would be extremely dire,” he said. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that B.L. would be able to survive a strike of the type that Mr Fraser appears intent on perpetrating—it would not be able to survive in the form that we know it." Roy Fraser is leader of

the newly-formed British Leyland United Craft Organisation, which has called an indefinite stoppage. Mr Horrocks, interviewed at B.L.’s Cowley plant near Oxford by I.T.N.’s News at One programme, was asked What the strike could mean to the proposed link up with the Japanese Honda company. He said: “It is not just a question of what the Japanese think, or do not, but it is a question of the survival of my company.” Mr Horrocks’s warning came after a plea from the Industry Secretary (Mr Eric Varley) not to go ahead with the strike. The strike is over a B.L. skilled workers’ claim for a basic £9O about $170) a week.