Gardner in, Perkins out
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• The first Gardner engine for four months rolled off the Patricroft production line in Manchester on Monday.
After the longest industrial dispute Gardner Engines (Sales) Ltd has known, a spokesman reported: the men have returned to work and some who left during the strike have re-applied for a job.
The dispute created a "desperate" situation, for some leading manufacturers as the engine shortage became more acute (CM June 8).
But while Gardner gets back to full production, and this could take some weeks, manufacturers are faced with another engine shortage — from Perkins.
After an 11-week overtime ban, production stopped on Wednesday of last week when workers went out on strike. Perkins usually turns out between 1300 and 1400 engines a day.
Although most major commercial vehicle makers do not anticipate trouble for the next couple of weeks, Ford have not had an engine delivered from Perkins for nearly two weeks.
Its last batch of engines was already waiting for chassis on Tuesday. A spokesman commented: "These will be the last 28-tonners we will produce until more engines are available. We are obviously worried about the situation.
.Chrysler's truck division at Dunstable is affected by a shortage of its own engines normally manufactured at its Stoke factory which is now heavily picketed as a result of the company's own industrial problems. The company was unable to say, however, when it would run out of Perkins engines.
British Leyland said the percentage of Perkins engines it used was small. "The vehicle which this shortage will chiefly affect will be the Boxer," our reporter was told.