Ellesmere Port Workers Get Extra Day Off
Published: October 12th, 2012
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As part of a cost-cutting measure, workers at the Opel/Vauxhall plant at Ellsemere Port, UK, will switch to a four-day week from the current five-day setup.
The move is also designed to assist the new Astra model changeover. The plant’s future is apparently secured until 2015, but the reduced work week, along with a voluntary “down week” in September to help slow down production due to lagging sales, are worrying signs not just for Opel/Vauxhall but GM as a whole.
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So if Opel dies, where does that leave Buick? I am rooting for them to eat Acura's lunch over the next few years, since Honda is so clueless.
The new Astra is only expected to hit the streets in 2015, which means Ellesmere Port is secure probably through the end of the decade. As for switching to a four-day week, the plant just went to three shifts, which will allow volumes to be maintained as a work day is cut to save on related production costs, primarily utilities. The only accurate part of this story is that production at the plant was halted for a week to allow European inventories to clear out.
Yep, if you work 4 10 hour days instead of 5 8 hour days, you get a day off. Plants have been shut down if a model is not selling well. I don't see how this is a big deal and hardly a foreboding of GM's imminent collapse.
Cameron gives a rat's arse for Vauxhall. The Brit government are busy spending 6 billion plus on RN carriers the USAF can land on. This because the UK is not part of Europa. You know they might be neighbours and that but independence comes from being 51st defence state.