Nissan's Sunderland factory, Europe's most productive car plant, could soon be embroiled in its first strike over pay, the Amicus engineering union warned last night. The union said pay talks had broken down at the arbitration service Acas on Friday and the plant, which employs 4,500, was "dangerously close" to its first strike since opening in 1984.
But Nissan, conceding that it was the first time it had been forced to go to Acas, insisted talks were continuing and that it still hoped to reach a deal.
The plant's works council, a largely non-union body and crucial to the dispute, has so far rejected a 3% pay offer for this year and 2004, pressing instead for 6% in 2003 as a reward for consistently delivering productivity records.
Peugeot workers in the TGWU union at the Ryton plant near Coventry, meanwhile, voted 54.2% to strike after rejecting a 7.3%, two year deal in a secret ballot on a 73.4% turnout. The result of the Amicus ballot at Peugeot is due today.
The disputes have arisen as the car industry celebrates a 9.1% increase in output last year to 1.63m units, with a 17% rise in exports - many of them from Japanese plants based in Britain - to 1.05m.
Under Nissan's complex bargaining procedure, the works council will today put its final offer to the workforce without a recommendation. If that is rejected, Amicus will call a strike ballot among its 800 members at the plant.
But the council, which includes five Amicus shop stewards, could opt - with or without company approval - to bring in a full-time union official to help resolve the dispute. If that official failed, a strike would be inevitable.
Davey Hall, Amicus's regional secretary, said: "Nissan wants to keep the union out of the company and the plant. But if the ballot is won it would have no alternative but to come to the union, and we would then want a bigger visibility and assurance that we would be involved."
Amicus joint leader Derek Simpson, who has been pressing for the renegotiation of no-strike or "sweetheart" deals at Britain's three Japanese car plants, said: "If Amicus had been involved from the start we should have been able to resolve the pay talks before we got into this mess."
According to Mr Hall, the works council demand for 6% reflects the success of the plant, which produced 300,000 Micras, Primeras and Almeras last year and plans to raise production to 350,000 in 2003.
Pointing out that Sunder land had won the race to build the new Micra against competition from a Renault plant in France, he said: "This is the best performing plant in Europe and the workforce is looking for an adequate response to the quality and productivity records it achieves."
Sunderland, where management is seeking a 30% cut in costs to offset the impact of the strong pound, exports most of its output to mainland Europe. Components for the new Micra are 80% sourced in the eu rozone compared with 20% in the UK.
At French group Peugeot, Tony Woodley, the TGWU deputy leader, said: "We made it clear to the company that their offer did not match other settlements in the industry.
"Peugeot can afford to do better for our members who want a pay offer which reflects their commitment to making Ryton one of the most successful car plants in Europe."
