Call for talks as leaked plan proposes 1,400 job cuts at Vauxhall

Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009 21:01

UNION leaders are seeking urgent talks with the new owner of Vauxhall after a leaked business plan proposed nearly 1,400 job cuts in Britain.

Unite joint leader Tony Woodley said he had "growing concerns" over the future plans of Canadian car parts giant Magna, which is buying the European business of General Motors, including the two Vauxhall plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.

A report yesterday in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed that Magna had plans to shed 1,373 jobs at Luton and Ellesmere Port as part of nearly 11,000 cuts across Europe, although it made clear that no final decision had been taken and that discussions were continuing.

If implemented, the number of British jobs would fall by 30 per cent. Proposed cuts in Germany, meanwhile, would cull less than 17 per cent of that nation's workforce.

Some sources suggested yesterday the UK job losses could be even more substantial, with the total number of positions to fall under the axe as high as 1,830.

Woodley repeated a warning he gave at the TUC Congress in Liverpool last week, saying: "At last the truth is out about Magna's intention towards the UK plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton. If these plans to slash jobs at both sites and cut the volume of cars produced at Ellesmere Port are pushed through then, make no mistake, Vauxhall will cease to operate in this country in six years' time.

"We need an urgent discussion with Magna, along with our government, so that it can be made crystal clear to the company that their plans are unacceptable – not just in terms of the survival of Vauxhall, but also to the safe future of the entire UK car industry."

Carl-Peter Forster, head of the European division of GM, said economic factors were forcing the company to take action. He said: "We always said that we would have to restructure in order to stay competitive in the long term, given the massive crisis in the car industry."

However, Woodley said Magna needed to demonstrate that Britain would not bear the brunt of the downsizing, warning that the company was involved in a "political stitch-up" with the German government.

John Cooper, the senior union official at Ellesmere Port, has warned that Magna's business plan involved cutting 830 jobs at the plant.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown toured the Ellesmere Port factory ahead of his speech to the TUC last week, saying: "We are putting our faith in the future of Ellesmere Port, we are putting our faith in the future of the new model (Vauxhall] Astra that is about to appear."

If implemented, the cuts would all but end production at the Luton plant, where only about 300 workers would be left. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said speculation was unhelpful at such a stage and that it was "too early" to analyse specific numbers of job of losses.

Last week, Magna's co-chief executive, Siegfried Wolf, said as many as 10,500 jobs would have to go, with 4,000 of the cuts in Germany. Wolf said that the cuts could take more than a year to implement.