|
GM's UK workers slam cuts
|
 |
December 13, 2000: 10:03 a.m. ET
Vauxhall hit by unrest after announcing plant closure, 2,000 job cuts
By Staff Writer Jamey Keaten
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Hundreds of workers at a Vauxhall Motors plant outside London stormed the car company's offices Wednesday, protesting the planned closure of the factory and the firing of some 2,000 people announced by U.S.-based parent company General Motors Corp. a day earlier.
Union leaders, who stressed that the protest was an unofficial action, estimated that roughly 200 workers blockaded the administrative offices at Vauxhall's Luton, England plant Wednesday morning before dispersing. About 500 employees walked off the job to protest the cuts, the officials said.
GM (GM: Research, Estimates), the world's largest automaker, announced Tuesday a corporate overhaul and 5,000 job cuts across Europe to try to return to profitability. The company said it lost $181 million in Europe in the third quarter of 2000 and predicted a "much larger loss" in the fourth quarter.
The recovery plan will include the closure of Vauxhall's car-making plant in Luton, north of London, in early 2002. The company said it would offer redundancy payments to employees who agree to leave: some workers told CNN's Tom Bogdanowicz the company offered them as much as £30,000 ($43,500).
GM, which has owned Vauxhall since the 1920s, said it would close its Vectra mid-size car line in Luton, which employs 2,500 people, offering jobs to 500 of them at a nearby plant where the Vivaro van is to be built.
David Crundwell, a spokesman for Vauxhall, confirmed that about 200 workers barged into the reception area at the Luton office, demanding to see Chairman Nick Reilly.
Reilly agreed to meet them on the steps of the building, fielding a series of questions and pledging to hold further meetings with the workers later, said Crundwell. He said the crowd then dispersed. Only about 30 to 40 people walked off the production line, he added.
Leaders of the Transport and General Workers Union vowed to fight the planned closure of the Luton plant, saying they had recently reached an accord in which the automaker made a long-term commitment to Luton.
Easier to sack UK workers?
Union leaders attacked what they called weaker employee protection offered by British labor laws in comparison to continental Europe. British laws have less stringent requirements on consultation with labor officials and allow for lower "exit costs" for automakers that seek to quit Britain, a spokesman for the TGWU said.
"It's cheaper and easier to sack workers in the U.K. than on the Continent," said a union spokesman. He said workers were especially disgruntled that they had first learnt about the closure from news reports, and not Vauxhall itself. "U.K. workers are the poor partners in Europe."
The TGWU has appealed to Tony Blair's government for support, but hasn't gotten a response yet, the spokesman said.
Crundwell said the closure had "nothing to do" with the strictness of British labor laws, saying the plant shutdown was related to overcapacity in the European car market. He said the market share for mid-size cars such as the Vectra has declined by about 20 percent over the last five years.
Parliament took up the issue Wednesday, with Secretary of Trade and Industry Stephen Byers saying the Blair cabinet "understands the sense of anger" the workers feel, although the minister said he recognized GM's insistence that the cuts are due to overcapacity in the market and changing consumer tastes.
The company had an agreement with the union outlining how Vauxhall hoped to bring the Epsilon – the next-generation Vectra – to Luton. Vectra production will continue at a plant in Germany.
The blow to the U.K. manufacturer came as the picture for the industry worsened in Europe. New car registrations in Western Europe fell to 1,102,726 in November from 1,113,380 a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said Wednesday. Figures for the first nine months of the year showed a drop of 1.7 percent from a year earlier. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vauxhall
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
