UNION officials at a strike-hit dump truck factory go into a meeting today hoping management will offer some form of olive branch to solve the dispute.

About 500 shopfloor workers staged their third one-day stoppage at the Caterpillar plant in Peterlee, County Durham, yesterday.

As in the previous 24-hour strikes over the past two Tuesdays, it attracted solid support, with only one chargehand said to have broken ranks and gone into work at the North West Industrial Estate factory.

The workforce, members of the engineering union Amicus/AEEU, are angry at new terms and conditions they claim management at the American-owned company plan to impose, which would lead to an effective three-year pay freeze.

Union officials have called on the company to take the dispute to the conciliation and arbitration service Acas, but management at the plant has maintained it wants to try to resolve matters "in-house".

A meeting was staged between the parties last Thursday, but no progress was made. Both sides return for a second meeting at the factory this morning.

Speaking after a third day on the picket line last night, Amicus/ AEEU works convenor Kelvin Wood said he was not expecting much change from today's meeting.

"I'm an eternal optimist, but I can't build my hopes up too high. We're going in with an open mind and with fingers crossed, but if there's no change I would have thought it's either Acas or bust."

The company confirmed the meeting had been called in an attempt to "resolve matters internally".