Ford worker had a better, wetter idea

Two hundred workers at the Ford motor plant in Dagenham, Essex, are on strike in a row over a bag of urine.

The workers, who pack cars in kits for export outside Europe, walked out last Friday in support of a colleague who was sacked for thrusting the urine at his boss.

According to workers at the plant, the sacked man, named only as Norman, was angry when a foreman criticised his regular visits to the lavatory, usually with his favourite tabloid in hand.

"The foreman felt he had gone once too often and picked him up over it," said one of the man's colleagues. "He asked Norman where he thought he was going - he had only been 20 minutes earlier - and Norman said: 'I'm going for a piss'.

"About 10 minutes later, Norman came out again with a plastic bag full of urine and slapped it down in front of the foreman and said: 'There, I told you I was going for a piss.'"

The man, understood to be in his forties, was sacked for gross misconduct but Transport and General Workers' Union representatives called a meeting and asked workers at the KD [Knock Down] Operations department to stage an unofficial walkout and to remain out of work for a week. It is understood that in the ensuing show of hands, about one-quarter of the men voted for the industrial action while the majority abstained. The vote was therefore carried and the men went home.

Discussions were under way between management and the TGWU yesterday. Ford confirmed that about 200 men were on strike and that production was likely to be affected.