Vauxhall unions threaten strike over factory closure
Union leaders say they are ready to call for strikes at Vauxhall after they failed to secure a reprieve for a factory threatened with closure.
Leaders of three unions travelled to Zurich to meet Mike Burns, president of General Motors Europe. They emerged angry at the end of the two-hour meeting saying they had not received any concessions.
GM Europe said in December it would close its Vauxhall plant in Luton, just north of London, as part of plans to pare down excess production capacity. Some 2,000 jobs will go at Luton.
Roger Lyons, general secretary of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, told The Associated Press, said: "We are very frustrated. The meeting hasn't resulted in any progress."
The union leaders insist that the Luton plant is profitable and that any job cuts should be spread more fairly across GM's work force of 90,000.
He said the unions would now be seeking an urgent meeting with GM chief executive Rick Wagoner in Detroit.
"In the meantime we are registering our concern that the company has broken its agreement, has not consulted and is imposing a large closure without any justification. We will be reporting this to mass meetings in the next two to three days, with joint recommendations on ballots for industrial action."
MSF spokesman Richard O'Brien said the unions would call for strikes at both Luton and Vauxhall's other plant in Ellesmere Port, in northwest England. It had not yet been decided whether this would be a series of short strikes or an indefinite one, he said.
A GM Europe spokesman said the company had put its position to the unions that market decline meant the closure was inevitable.
"This isn't something against Britain or against Luton," the spokesman said, adding that past job cuts had hit other countries harder than Britain.
