The biggest strike in the West Midlands for more than a decade was under way today as about 9,000 Land Rover workers began a 24-hour walk out.
 A crowd of several thousand chanting workers braved plunging temperatures before dawn to picket the 4x4 car maker's huge Solihull plant. Others stood guard at the Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire. Unions claimed 100 per cent support of members heeding the call to stay away as the escalating dispute moved into its first 24-hour stoppage. The first workers walked out at 3.30am and by 7am the pickets were out in force, many of them fenced behind a 10ft metal grill outside the main entrance erected over the weekend. Managers who crossed the picket line this morning were jeered and barraged with taunts of "scab". The situation had become graver over the weekend as the Ford-owned company warned that the industrial action "put at risk the long-term future of Solihull" - Britain's biggest car manufacturing plant.
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Land Rover
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Production of millions of pounds' worth of Range Rovers, Discoverys, Free-landers and Defenders were lost by today's strike - the first at the company for 16 years. The catalyst for the dispute was a two-year, 6.5 per cent "final" offer by management, but other factors were also believed to be driving shop-floor militancy. Workers fear that giving the go-ahead to the pay deal would also cut the union out of negotiations for impending radical changes to working practices. Anger has also been sparked by a wage gap of about £25 a week between Land Rover employees and those at near neighbour Jaguar. Both sides have sought to play down the dispute so far but union leaders at the Lode Lane plant will meet later this week to decide whether to step up the disruption campaign with more strike days. Dave Osborne, chief car industry organiser for the powerful Transport & General Workers' Union, said today: "The company has been transformed in the last 18 months from a 250 million dollars loss to a forecast of 92 million dollars in the black, in large measure due to the contribution of our members." A Land Rover spokeswoman said: "The company's final pay offer is significantly above the current rate of inflation and industry settlements in the UK. "Land Rover employees enjoy a comprehensive package of employment benefits that places them at the top of the automotive pay league." | 
