WORKERS at Standfast in Lancaster are on a collision course with management which could end in strike action. Employees at the Caton Road dyers and printers are incensed over new plans to almost double the number of 48-hour working weeks as part of controversial annaulised hour contracts. They have stood firm against the new work settlements imposed earlier this year and will now decide whether to hold selective strikes on Saturdays and Sundays. The company faced with an workers' overtime ban which has been in effect since June, want to increase the number of 48-hour weeks because of burgeoning order books.

Peter Reid, a spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), said: "I'm proud of the way our members have demonstrated that they are not going to be bullied into accepting contracts that they don't want."

If strike action goes ahead, up to 160 workers could boycott weekend work.

"They never wanted to strike but from the company leaves them little choice," added Mr Reid.

Feelings are running high at Standfast. Workers reacted to the imposition of annualised hours contracts in June because they complained shifts would eat into their weekends and deprive them of quality time. Standfast's chief executive Tony March, said they were already losing money because of the overtime ban. He emphasised management had drawn up a 5-point plan to help workers cope but so far it had been rejected.

"If people want to export jobs to the Spanish, Dutch and the Turkish then that will happen. This is very serious. People can't bury their heads in the sand that was the mentality that ended the coal industry," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.