UNION leaders at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant are hopeful the site will avoid the “painful change” that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson says is set to happen to its parent company.
Lord Mandelson said yesterday that whoever takes over General Motors’ (GM) European arm will have to make cuts to help the business survive the recession and the resulting slump in car sales.
But he pledged to fight for the future of Vauxhall’s UK plants – and unions said last night they were confident that the Ellesmere Port site, which employs 2,000 people, was efficient and productive enough to survive any round of cuts.
The three front-runners in the race for GM Europe are reported to be Italian car giant Fiat, Canadian components group Magna and Belgian car parts company RHJ International. Fears for the future of the Cheshire plant were sparked earlier this month by a report from German union officials that an initial proposal from Fiat, known as Project Football, included plans to close Vauxhall’s two UK plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton by 2016.
This September, Ellesmere Port will start building the new Astra, whose lifespan is set to end around 2016.
