JOBS at Ellesmere Port’s Vauxhall plant are safe for the foreseeable future.
General Motors’ bosses delivered the good news yesterday, which will come as a welcome early Christmas present to the factory’s 2,000 workers, including hundreds from Chester, Flintshire and Wrexham.
GM recently pulled out of a takeover deal with Canadian car parts manufacturer Magna International for Vauxhall and its German sister-company Opel and the company has since been putting together a major restructuring plan.
The man in charge of masterminding the package aimed at driving the company back to profitability is Nick Reilly, a former boss at the Ellesmere Port plant, who is acting chief executive of GM Europe.
On Tuesday, Mr Reilly confirmed speculation that 9,000 jobs would have to go at plants across Europe.
But although he said none of GM’s German factories would close, he made no mention of Ellesmere Port in his statement.
But he dramatically put this right yesterday by signalling that the plant’s future was secure well into the next decade.
He said: “Ellesmere Port is today (Thursday) advising employees of the proposals for its future. The proposed plan is for Ellesmere Port to move to a three-shift production operation in 2011.
“To support the launch in 2010 of the new Astra Sports Tourer and to prepare for the third shift introduction in 2011, the plan is for no redundancies as all current labour would need to be utilised to staff the third shift.
“Plant and trade union senior leadership will now work together to develop the details of the plan in order to support the future strategy for Ellesmere Port.”
There is speculation that all UK job cuts – though to be about 350 – will now be borne by Vauxhall’s Luton plant, but a spokesman for GM refused to confirm this yesterday.