Sacked workers end sit-in protest

Workers have vowed to continue fighting for a settlement

A sit-in protest by 230 London workers made redundant by US car parts firm Visteon has ended.

The employees at the firm in Enfield, north London, lost their jobs last week when Visteon UK collapsed.

They have accused the firm of failing to deliver pay-off deals but agreed to end the sit-in after Visteon's UK parent company agreed to meet them.

Visteon has insisted it had no choice but to put its UK operation into administration, despite the impact.

Kevin Nolan, of the Unite union, said: "They have done 20, 30 years service, sometimes more than that.

"For this big company to put 600 employees straight into poverty is an absolute disgrace."

Describing the protest, sacked worker Richard Bruce said: "It is desperate stuff for desperate times.

"The company has dumped on us from a great height with nothing in the bank."

'Listened carefully'

Workers staging the rooftop protest and sit-in had been threatened with eviction by Monday. But Tuesday's meeting prompted them to leave before the deadline.

Picketing, however, outside the plant is continuing.

After a meeting with the Unite union in New York on Wednesday, Bill Quigley, executive vice president and CFO of the Visteon Corporation, said: "We listened carefully to all of the concerns voiced by the union delegation on behalf of their members who were previously employed by Visteon UK Ltd.

"We advised the union it was with considerable regret that we concluded we had no other option but to place these long-term loss-making manufacturing operations into administration, despite the subsequent impact on the people employed there."