Business Secretary Mandelson yesterday admitted that he was unable to get any commitment from GM Europe’s preferred bidder Magna on saving jobs at the GM plants in the UK.
Mandelson has been having a series of meetings in the UK and Germany this week to discuss Vauxhall and its future as part of GM Europe.
He met a number of senior representatives from the Unite union and local MPs on Wednesday.
Yesterday he was in Germany for meetings with senior Chancellery officials and Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, as well as Canadian auto parts giant Magna.
Before yesterday’s talks with Magna, Mandelson said he wanted to know how committed Magna was to continuing Vauxhall production.
When asked after meeting the boss of Magna, Siegfried Wolf, if any commitment had been secured about preserving jobs at GM plants in Britain, Mandelson replied: ‘We’re going to discuss these things.’
A team of technical experts has been looking at the GM plants in Britain this week.
But no deal has been done to secure their future and the Magna deal could fall through, even though the chances of another investor stepping in are remote.
‘The British government is prepared to play its part in enabling the company to go forward,’ Mandelson said at a Berlin press conference after meeting Guttenberg.
However, Mandelson added that any offer was conditional on a clear future perspective for GM Europe as a whole.
Guttenberg said that, to his knowledge, the takeover bid by Canadian car parts supplier Magna would entail 10,000 to 11,000 job losses in Europe.
He added that he had not heard of revised figures published by German daily Welt yesterday, which reported that Magna intended to axe 11,600 jobs at sites across Europe.
Guttenberg told the press conference that they had received only a memorandum of understanding from Magna International and that they were keen to talk to other bidders.
Mandelson said: ‘It is impossible to predict conclusively if the memorandum of understanding that we have now will translate into final agreement. We hope it will.
‘But, we also have to keep our mind open to alternatives if that memorandum of understanding does not convert into a final agreement. We are agreed on that.’
Losses
Meanwhile, Magna chief executive Wolf yesterday said he cannot rule out job losses in the UK.
Chris Stagg, a worker at the Luton GM plant, commented yesterday: ‘The unions really need to call a mass meeting now, because it’s gone too far down the road.
‘But there seems to be a reluctance for some unknown reason for the unions to call a mass meeting, and, given that there are people’s jobs on the line and their livelihoods, then I think the government have got no other option really than to nationalise the industry, as Brown has already said the only way out of this recession is through manufacturing and industry.’
ATUA National Secretary Dave Wiltshire told News Line: ‘Mandelson’s admission that he’s got no agreement from Magna on anything to do with jobs, poses point blank the question: what are the unions going to do now?
‘Having told GM workers that their future relies on Mandelson getting a deal, they will now turn round and say that nothing can be done and we will just have to accept the closure of GM plants along with the loss of thousands of jobs.
‘They oppose the demand for nationalisation of the industry and have refused to face their own members at mass meetings.
‘GM workers must demand that meetings take place where a decision can be taken to occupy factories facing closure, and to demand that the Labour government nationalise the whole motor industry and place it under the control of workers.
‘The union leaders’ position – that the government will refuse to do this – must be met with the demand that the trade unions use all their strength to bring down this Labour government and replace it with a government that will nationalise these bankrupt industries and protect every single job.’
• Yesterday the government moved in to rescue another failing building society, the West Bromwich, which has 350,000 customers.
The building society has 46 branches and employs 850 staff.