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Vauxhall unions seek Magna talks
23 September 2009
Vauxhall unions have called for talks with the firm’s new owner Magna over the 1400 jobs which could be lost as part of cost cutting.
There are more than 4000 Vauxhall workers in the UK at its Ellesmere Port and Luton plants and Magna could decide by the end of the week how many jobs will go.
Tony Woodley, head of the Unite union which represents Vauxhall workers, said: “For Britain, there is likely be 1000 or more job losses almost immediately in both of our plants.
“Worse than that, without the investment and with capacity being stolen from the plants to go elsewhere, there will be no long-term future for either of the British plants.”
General Motors agreed to sell Opel/Vauxhall to Magna earlier this month and it plans to cut 10,500 employees from its 50,000-strong workforce. Half of these are expected to come from Germany.
The German government has been key to providing funding for Magna in the takeover and countries which have Opel plants have called on the European Commission to ensure Magna doesn’t favour Germany when it comes to cutting jobs.
“The political stitch-up with the German government means that in the longer term all the other countries are going to lose out,” said Woodley.
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