STRIKE action over pay at Southampton shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft was sus-pended today.

The decision by unions to halt the one-day stoppages, which have paralysed the Woolston yard for the last five weeks, came late yesterday afternoon after hours of tense negotiations between officials and management.

Around 650 members of various unions had been tak-ing it in turns to down tools on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in planned stoppages after they rejected the firm's final pay offer in late May.

Shop stewards claim many skilled craftsmen being paid £269 a week have to supplement their income with family credit to pay their mortgages. It is believed unions are aiming for an increase of around £20 per man a week.

Bosses for VT, which has announced profits of £34.2 million, have stood firm on their offer of 3.3 per cent from April 1 this year topped up by a further 0.3 per cent from July 1 and the promise of 0.5 per cent above the retail price index from next April.

But the breakthrough has only been confirmed by shop stewards until the end of the week with the threat that strikes will resume next week unless a new, improved deal, can be thrashed out.

It has also emerged that a programme of strike action has been planned until the end of August, in accordance with union law.

Geoff Price, shop stewards' committee chairman, said: "The ball is firmly in their court. This dispute will only be resolved by discussions and we have given the firm a window of opportunity to go away and consider its position.

"There really are no obstacles in their way," he added.

"We have made the company aware that their previous offer was overwhelmingly rejected by members."

Colin Reed, VT personnel director, said: "We have had some very useful dialogue. I am extremely pleased there will be no strike action today. I am looking forward to further talks with unions tomorrow but would wish to say little more than that."

He declined to say if an improved offer would be put on the table.

The industrial action has hit the high-profile contract to build four millennium ferries due to carry visitors to and from the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, London.

Bob Stokes, regional spokesman for the GMB union, said: "Although the firm has not intimated it directly to us, they must be very concerned about the fact that production is only running at 50 per cent.

"It is in their interest to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.