SENIOR managers at the Montupet car component factory in Dunmurry say they can still see no way of resolving the dispute which has been going on at the plant for the past six weeks.

According to managing director, Mr Georges Senninger, the company is back in full production and only 50 of the 270 workers who originally walked out of the factory are still on strike. This includes 20 who have been dismissed.

The strikers insist that more than 100 workers have refused to return, and that there is no chance of their doing so until their 20 colleagues have been reinstated, something the company is refusing to consider.

Mr Senninger said the threatening and intimidatory behaviour of some of those on the picket line had been such that workers at the factory would be "outraged" if the sacked men were allowed back.

According to one report, punches were thrown last week as Mr Senninger and a solicitor acting for the company attempted to serve an injunction on one of the pickets. Police moved in and a man was arrested. A spokesman for the strikers, Mr Mark Harbinson, described the situation as "volatile".

Mr Senninger admitted that, while nearly £3 million worth of orders had been lost due to the dispute, the image of the company had not been damaged seriously.

"Our industry is a very close type of community," he said. "Everybody knows everybody else; people know how a company works and where the problems come from. They know it is nothing to do with Montupet, and it is very unlucky that this has happened to us.

He said this year £20 million was being invested by Montupet at the Dunmurry factory on the installation of two new production lines, which could produce around 200 new jobs.

In spite of the losses caused by the dispute he predicted a turnover of £25 million this year, rising to more than £60 million over the next three years.