Workers debate Vauxhall strike threat

Car manufacturers are under pressure to cut jobs

Vauxhall car workers are on Tuesday holding mass meetings to prepare for a strike ballot over cutbacks which will axe 2,000 jobs.

The workforce are being called upon today to say they can't be discarded like a used tissue

Roger Lyons, general secretary, MSF

Union leaders, who have launched legal action over the plans, will within the next few days begin balloting members at Vauxhall's Luton and Ellesmore Port plants on industrial action.

The union claims Vauxhall's parent company, General Motors, is singling out UK operations unfairly in a cuts programme affecting the firm's operations across Europe.

Car production at Vauxhall's Luton plant is to be axed as part of the programme, ordered in response to a profits slump.

But Vauxhall's UK boss, Nick Reilly, denied that the UK was suffering more cuts than other production sites in Europe.

'Treated disgracefully'

Roger Lyons, general secretary of the MSF union, told BBC Radio 4's Today progamme:

"We are drawing a line in the sand. General Motors has had over £1bn in net profits from the UK over the last 10 years. They have had public funds, they have had flexibility and productivity.

"The workforce are being called upon today to say they can't be discarded like a used tissue. We are being treated disgracefully.

Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said General Motors had left unions with "no alternative but to threaten industrial action".

Day of action

Union leaders claim they have gained Europe-wide support over claims that Vauxhall is being targeted for an unfairly high proportion of cuts.

MPs on the Commons trade & industry select committee are investigating claims that UK legislation makes it easier for multinationals to target cuts at Britain, rather than in Continental countries where regulations are tighter.

GM workers across Europe will on 25 January stage a day of action in support of the Luton plant, where a rally is being held on Saturday.

Union leaders also believe the move breaches European consultation directives, a claim they are pursuing through the courts.

Overcapacity problem

Unions on Monday failed to convince Mike Burns, president of General Motors Europe, to accept plans to continue production of the Vauxhall Vectra at Luton.

We are trying to ensure that we can do this without any mandatory redundancies

Nick Reilly, chairman, Vauxhall

And Vauxhall chairman Nick Reilly on Tuesday said strike action could threaten future investment in GM's UK operations.

GM has been hit by an overcapacity problem which has seen European automakers produce 25% more cars than needed, Mr Reilly told the BBC R4's Today programme..

GM Europe lost £180m in the third quarter of last year, and Vauxhall "is not trading profitably today", he said.

While regretting the jobs losses at Luton, he denied UK operations were being unfairly targeted.

"GM Europe has actually reduced employment even more in Germany and Belgium over the last few years, compared to the UK," he said.

"We are looking at costs throughout the company and are taking decisions like this throughout Europe. Clearly the people who are affected don't see this as very fair, but we are trying to ensure that we can do this without any mandatory redundancies, if possible," he added.

GM is also facing a crisis in its home market in the US, where it estimates that sales will fall this year by 15%,

It has announced the closure or temporary shutdown of eight US plants.