There is growing anger amongst workers over the future of the GMM Luton plant, at the same time as a decision is imminent on who will take over GM Europe.
General Motors in Detroit has demanded bidders present their final offers by tonight.
GMM Luton worker Chris Stagg said: ‘What with all the uncertainty about who is going to buy GM Europe the government should have stepped in ages ago and nationalised the company to save jobs.
‘In fact this should have been the benchmark for the whole car industry, nationalise to prevent its complete destruction.
‘Now the workers at Luton are going to have to consider carefully what they are prepared to do to safeguard jobs because its obvious that no one else is going to do it for us.
‘If Magna wins the bid they have made it clear that the Luton GM plant will close, while this private equity company, RHJ, has said that although it would keep Ellesmere Port and the Luton van plant open, it would cut the workforce and cut wages.
‘The working man will always end up paying the price to keep these factories open.
‘We are asking how much further are they going to push us.
‘Already we are working flat out, doing longer hours for less pay, we’ve already had a pay cut of about £25 a week, the workforce has done everything the company has demanded and we simply can’t give anymore.
‘As for the leadership of the unions they should have organised ages ago against this situation but they have done nothing.
‘They don’t call meetings to hear what the members want in Luton and people are beginning to ask why?
‘One thing that has worried a great number of people in the plant is the way in which the union has taken to calling it Vauxhall Luton, we are GMM Luton.
‘By calling us Vauxhall, people believe the union leaders are trying to incorporate us along with the Ellesmere Port Vauxhall plant.
‘That way, if Ellesmere Port manages to stay open they can claim that Vauxhall’s was saved in the UK at the cost of 1,500 jobs at the Vauxhall plant in Luton.
‘This would sound a lot better than admitting that the entire GMM van plant in Luton was closed and the union stood by and let it happen without a fight.
‘This is exactly what they tried when the Luton car plant closed in 2001, they attempted to change the name of the van plant from IBC to Vauxhall so they could say they saved Vauxhalls in Luton.
‘Whoever wins this bidding war, the workers at the plant are going to have to demand a real fight from these union leaders for its nationalisation.’
