THE car components firm Montupet has announced a breakthrough in the four week dispute which has held up production at its Belfast plant. Managing director Mr Georges Senninger said that following an improved pay offer, three quarters of the workforce had now returned to work and that the production schedule had returned to normal.
The new pay deal offers workers an increase of 2.5 per cent and an increase in the overtime rate from time and a third to time and a half. The remaining striking workers continue to demand a 4.7 per cent pay increase, with guarantees of union rights.
Controversy remains over the future of 20 protesters sacked by the company almost three weeks ago and described by Mr Senninger as "the strike ringleaders". Last week he said that they would not be allowed back into the factory "under any circumstances".
The remaining strikers say they will not return until the men are reinstated.
Montupet produces aluminium cylinder heads and wheelhubs for car manufacturers throughout Europe. It began production in west Belfast in 1989 on the site of the old De Lorean car plant, with the promise to create 1,000 jobs.
In 1995 it announced plans to invest a further £142 million in the plant, creating another 1,300 jobs by the end of the decade. This was backed by a grant of £57 million from the IDB. However the number of people employed by the company has still to rise above 500.
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