‘Vauxhall workers should occupy to defend their jobs’, Belfast Visteon convenor John McGuire told News Line yesterday.
He was responding to news that Fiat Group SpA is in talks to buy most of General Motors Europe, which includes Opel in Germany and Vauxhall Ellesmere Port and GM Luton in the UK.
Swedish carmaker Saab is not expected to be included in the deal as it is being reorganised under Swedish law and is likely to be separated from the rest of GM’s European operations.
Visteon Belfast convenor McGuire said: ‘Don’t walk blindly into any deal.
‘If you are being sold a pig in a poke you should occupy and Unite should campaign to nationalise the industry.
‘We’re still in occupation until we get our redundancy cheques in the bank.’
GM Luton worker, Unite member Bernie Gleeson said: ‘If Fiat take over they will shut us down. I can’t see them producing a vehicle in Luton.
‘There will be nothing left in Luton if GM goes, and Ellesmere Port workers will all be flung on one dole queue.
‘People know if they lose their jobs they will be on the scrap heap. We’ve already seen our pensions squeezed.
‘Personally, I think we should occupy to defend our jobs.
‘Unite should fight to nationalise GM – if it’s good enough for America, it’s good enough for us.’
Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said: ‘There is absolutely no doubt that in our industry this would be a disaster, we would see even more plant closures as a consequence of the Fiat tie-up.’
He added: ‘We’ve got a situation where General Motors want to give away GM Europe for nothing, to cut their losses and cut their development funds.
‘The best thing that could happen from my view is that GM Europe, or better still GM International, picks up most of plants outside north America, which should really stay in the General Motors family.
‘But failing that, the creation of an Airbus type company with Germany, Spain and British Governments at least getting this new company GM Europe off the ground – would be the best for jobs, for plants and for the automotive industry.’
Woodley said: ‘To watch literally 50,000 to 60,000 direct jobs fall if General Motors collapsed along with the components companies that would collapse alongside it – it just should not be allowed to happen.’
All Trades Unions Alliance National Secretary Dave Wiltshire called for all car plants to be occupied to keep them open and for Unite to lead a national campaign of strike action for the nationalisation of GM.
He told News Line: ‘Woodley’s only tactic is to beg the government, or in this case all the European governments, to bail out a bankrupt car industry.
‘As they have consistently refused to do this, Woodley knows full well that his solution is empty, and will not save a single job in Britain or Europe.
‘The only way forward is to nationalise the companies and this can only be achieved by removing the government and bringing in a workers government committed to socialism.’
Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne said yesterday that Fiat, Chrysler and Opel would form a new publicly traded company with revenues of about 80bn euros ($106bn) and sales of six or seven million vehicles a year.
Marchionne was meeting German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin yesterday.
He said: ‘From an engineering and industrial point of view, this is a marriage made in heaven,’ adding that a union of Opel and Fiat would save 1bn euros a year.
It is being predicted the merger could result in the loss of up to 9,000 jobs.
