GENERAL MOTORS is creating 700 jobs at its Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire, England, along with hundreds more in the supply chain, to build the new model of its Astra car in the latest fillip for Britain’s car industry.
The US car-maker is to invest £125 million (€155 million) in the plant after its 2,100 workers agreed a “ground-breaking new labour agreement”, GM said yesterday.
Ellesmere Port is one of two plants that will build the new model, with a German plant set to lose out. It should secure its future until the early 2020s. GM lost $747 million before tax in Europe last year.
Figures released yesterday revealed almost half a million cars were built in the UK in the first four months of the year, with more than 400,000 for export.
The number of engines built increased 1.2 per cent last month to 192,408. Commercial vehicle production rose 3.2 per cent year-on-year to almost 9,000.
GM’s new labour agreement, which comes into force in 2013, will lead to a three-shift system from 2015 with flexible working, making the plant among the most competitive in GM’s European manufacturing network. Ellesmere Port is expected to produce at least 160,000 vehicles annually. – (The Financial Times Limited)
