Land Rover Factory's Amicus Union Members Schedule 24 Hour Stoppage

LONDON, England, January 12, 2004;

Car workers represented by the Amicus trade union at Land Rover will be staging a 24 hour strike on the 26th January as part of their action to reject the Company's pay offer. The West Midlands workforce at the Solihull and Gaydon plants voted in December in support of strike action following rejection of the Company's offer of 6 1/2% staged over two years.

Land Rover is owned by the Ford Motor Company. Workers say the 6 1/2% deal will not give them parity with colleagues from Ford owned Jaguar and voted to reject the company offer by 82% in a ballot in October.

Shop Stewards from the joint trade union committee met today and voted to step up action that has seen an overtime ban and withdrawal from the operating time flexibility agreement since the 5th January.

In a statement Duncan Simpson, the Amicus National Officer for the Motor Vehicle Industry, said:

"We are calling for the Company to think again and avoid this unnecessary conflict by re-opening negotiations with the Trade unions."