Unions Say More Jaguar Job Losses to Come

LONDON, November 2 -- Up to 2,000 job cuts are likely to result from the recent cuts announced by Jaguar with the potential for another UK Jaguar plant closure, unions said to day.

In giving evidence to the Commons Select Committee on the 1,150 job losses announced by Jaguar in September, the Jaguar unions said that more job cuts are already coming to light at the Browns Lane plant in Coventry and at the company's Castle Bromwich site.

Unions have warned they believe there are even more redundancies to come. They say that unless model lines and capacity levels are revised, Whitley, the R&D site in the West Midlands, and another Jaguar UK production site are likely to close within eighteen months.

The unions said that the economic case for closing Browns Lane still needs to be made. They also highlighted the public money that has been invested in Jaguar in recent years.

Tony Woodley, General Secretary of T&G, said: "Jaguar has received GBP80m of public money since 1995 yet we are told it will cost GBP78m to close Browns Lane. Cynics might say that taxpayers are footing the bill for the closure of a highly successful, highly productive and efficient plant and throwing thousands of highly skilled UK workers onto the scrapheap."

Tony Murphy, Amicus' National Officer for the automotive industry, said: "We believe that the job cuts that have been announced so far are just the tip of the iceberg. We know already that the 400 wood trimming jobs which Ford say will remain at Browns Lane are being touted around Europe and more job cuts than were initially announced will go from Castle Bromwich. Unless Jaguar move to expand their product range and address capacity issues, the research and development centre at Whitley and at least one other UK production site are in jeopardy. Then what is to stop Ford moving whole scale Jaguar production out of the UK?"

Unions told the committee that they have had no consultation with Ford prior to the announcement and have not met with them since. Union shop stewards from Browns Lane giving evidence told how workers learned of the effective closure of the plant from the media.

For further information please contact Catherine Bithell in the Amicus press office on +44-(0)207-420-8909 or +44-(0)7958-473-224 or Andrew Dodgshon in the T&G press office on +44-(0)207-611-2549 or +44-(0)7976-832-156