8:14 am, December 17, 2024
Staff at Stellantis’s Luton plant are this week holding mass protests, following the carmaker’s decision to shut the factory.
Car Dealer reported last month that Stellantis is to end production at the Vauxhall site from next April, putting as many as 1,100 jobs at risk.
Despite the recent exit of long-serving CEO, Carlos Tavares, the carmaker remains committed to the closure, and employees are now making their displeasure known.
Trade union Unite says protests will take place throughout the next two days (Dec 17/18), beginning at 8am and running through to 4pm.
A further rally will also take place at midday today, with all protests being held at the entrance to the plant.
Unite recently called on Stellantis to reconsider closing the Vauxhall plant, in the wake of Tavares’ departure, and is backing the ongoing protests.
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: ‘Shutting the profitable Luton factory when it has just been made ready to produce electric vehicles from 2025 makes no sense.
Time has now rightly been called on Carlos Tavares, whose counterproductive strategy of cutting Stellantis to the bone to artificially inflate profits has clearly failed.
‘The opportunity is now there for Stellantis to prevent the needless destruction of its Luton operations.
‘Unite is calling on the company to withdraw the deadline for redundancies that was imposed under Carlos Tavares’ regime and allow for proper negotiations between workers, management and government over the future of the plant.’
In response to the protests, Stellantis told Car Dealer that it remains in consultation with unions and will be proving ‘dedicated job support’ for employees impacted by the closure.
A spokesman for the outfit said: ‘Stellantis is currently in consultation with its union partners with a proposal to consolidate its UK manufacturing footprint with new investment aiming to enhance Ellesmere Port’s mission as the UK’s sustainable, EV-only volume manufacturing plant moving production of its mid-sized from its Luton plant.
‘In the event that the company proposal is implemented, a comprehensive support plan for impacted employees in Luton, including hundreds of jobs to be relocated to the Ellesmere Port manufacturing site, will be made available with dedicated job support.’
