GM Europe chief gives Vauxhall job safeguard

The 5,000 UK workers at Vauxhall have been given some pre-Christmas cheer after GM’s European chief Nick Reilly said there will be no new job cuts at the motor manufacturer’s two plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.

“There will be no forced redundancies at Ellesmere Port and at Luton it is similar,” said Mr Reilly, who previously headed Vauxhall in the late 1990s. “There is a strong future for both plants.”

The statement came after GM recently announced that 350 jobs would go at Luton as part of a 9,000 job cutting exercise across Europe as part of the company restructuring.

With Ellesmere Port building the new Vauxhall Astra, Mr Reilly said he saw the move as a ‘long term recovery plan for GM in the UK’.

Any changes at Vauxhall’s Luton plant would not occur until 2013 when production of the Vauxhall Vivaro, which is rebadged by Renault, comes to an end. Mr Reilly is hoping to introduce a new model to replace the Vivaro at that date.

He said: “We are in discussions for the next generation vehicle, but this is not complete. We can’t say if it will be at the Luton plant until negotiations are finished.”

Mr Reilly does not expect GM’s European operations to return to profitability until 2010, when it expects a pre-tax profit of $1 billion.

Source: FT.com