Birmingham Post Comment: This Wages Row Is about the Future of Lode Lane

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Investment of pounds 200 million is going into Land Rover's Lode Lane plant, which will see the end of a dark and gloomy production area still using out-dated equipment which is putting it outside modern production methods used in the global automotive industry.

But the Ford people in Detroit responsible for the investment will be concerned with the outcome of the ballot on pay and conditions announced yesterday among the 7,000 union members at Lode Lane - who rejected a 6.5 per cent deal over two years because it did not bring them into line with their colleagues at Jaguar.

The unions, through Dave Osborne of the Transport and General Workers Union, have already …