THE Labour Relations Agency in the North has been called in to try to resolve a bitter unofficial dispute at the Montupet car components firm at Dunmurry, Belfast.
Strikers and management at the plant remained deadlocked in their dispute last night.
About 150 of the workforce of 400 continued their unofficial strike yesterday while the rest of the workers were passing the pickets.
Initially about 300 workers joined the strike for better pay and conditions, which has been running for more than two weeks. The dispute escalated when 20 of the strikers were sacked last week.
But when the managing director, Mr Georges Senninger, warned before the weekend that the plant would close if the strike continued more strikers returned to work.
The main union at the plant, the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, opposes the strike and has appealed to workers to return to work to allow a "cooling-off" period, after which matters in dispute could be tackled.
Mr Senninger has insisted that while he wants strikers to end lift picket he will not reverse the 20 sackings.
Dr Joe Hendron, of the SDLP, who brokered a meeting between the Montupet management and the pickets on Monday, was critical of the company yesterday, claiming it had backed out of an agreement to continue talks yesterday if the strikers observed a peaceful picket.
The company had instead decided to call in the Labour Relations Agency, he said. Striking workers said they also wanted the agency involved.
