Pickets chase their go-kart dream

The industrial dispute began over pay and conditions

Three workers who met on a picket line in one of the UK's longest-running strikes are using a shared hobby uncovered then to build a new future.

Staff at car parts factory Friction Dynamics at Caernarfon manned a picket line for two-and-a-half years in a dispute which started over conditions.

The trio of former workers, John Davies, Jim Clarke and Richard Lawson, are now setting up a go-kart track.

Workers are still waiting for a payout five years after the strike started.

We said, 'Well, dreams do come true, so let's see what we can do with this one' John Davies on go-karting

The three former strikers discovered their common interest in motorsport during their time on the picket line between June 2001 and December 2003.

A total of 87 workers went on strike over working conditions but were sacked eight weeks later. They were expecting compensation after a tribunal found they were unfairly dismissed but did not get any when Friction Dynamics went into administration in August 2003.

But when a new firm, Dynamex Friction, opened on the same site two weeks later, an industrial tribunal ruled the close connection between the two firms meant workers should have been offered employment or redundancy packages.

However, they have yet to receive full compensation.

The three men share an interest in motorsport

Mr Davies said he had mixed memories of the period during which he met his future business partners.

"There were high points, there were low points.

"The good times were that the community came around us, people throughout the UK and Europe as well.

"They came and supported us and it was a good feeling to know we weren't alone."

The idea for the go-karting track in Caernarfon came to the three men from a chance conversation.

"We were sitting on the picket line one night and we happened to be talking about hobbies, and we realised that we the three of us had an interest in motorsport. The idea came up," said Mr Davies.

As the men maintained their vigil outside the plant, they noted the number of tourists driving past, and realised the potential market.

"It was a dream and we said, 'Well, dreams do come true, so let's see what we can do with this one'. And we went to work on it and it's coming together slowly."

Mr Clarke said: "It was brought up only while we were together on the picket line. It would never have been spoken about at any other time."

Mr Lawson added: "Even though we worked together in the factory we weren't in the same department so when we went on the picket line it brought us all together."