Vauxhall jobs to go at Luton plant
While the Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port has been grabbing the headlines of late with relief that the 2500 jobs in the region are safe, there was bad news for the Vauxhall Luton plant today with the announcement of 350 job losses. GM Europe is currently in negotiations with workers and unions and it is hoped that the job losses will be fulfilled via voluntary redundancy amongst the 1500 workforce. Even though this is a blow for the UK government in the short to medium term it would appear the company is looking to downsize the operation in line with production forecasts for 2010 onwards.
There had been hopes that all Vauxhall jobs in the UK would be secure in the short to medium term although unfortunately this has not been the case with regards to the Luton plan. Currently there are no plans for further redundancies and with the Ellesmere Port plant also secure perhaps now we can start to look ahead rather than back.
GM Europe has recently emerged from the grasp of a potential suitor with General Motors withdrawing the company from the market at the last minute. Whether General Motors is willing, or indeed able, to inject significant capital into the GM Europe division in the short to medium term remains to be seen as the long-term future of this particular operation is still shrouded in mystery.
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