Lives wrecked to boost profits

Bosses get Scrooge spirit

Lives wrecked to boost profits

THE SHOCKING news of the closure of Vauxhall’s Luton car plant came after a week of swingeing job cuts announcements across Britain.

• COATS VIYELLA: Bosses of the textile firm announced that 1,200 workers-out of a workforce of 2,000-are to be sacked before Christmas. Factories in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire are to close completely.

• CORUS STEEL: Up to 6,000 jobs are threatened after the company announced a major restructuring plan. Corus has already announced 4,500 job losses across the country this year. Now the company admits a plant is likely to close completely. Closures are made even more likely by car plant cutbacks. A meeting of Corus workers on Teesside almost immediately decided to “take whatever action necessary” to save their jobs-and that includes strike action.

• ROYCE AEROSPACE: Some 600 jobs are to be axed at the firm’s Ansty site in Coventry. Bosses announced their plan to issue redundancy notices two weeks before Christmas. Angry workers immediately stopped work and held a mass meeting when they heard the news. They voted unanimously to ballot for strike action against compulsory redundancies.

• BRITISH AIRWAYS: Around 1,000 workers at Gatwick airport are to be sacked including pilots, cabin crew and ground staff. Another 800 staff will be transferred to Heathrow.

• ROVER: Thousands of jobs were thrown into question last week by the news that banks in the West Midlands are refusing to fund component companies that rely on MG Rover for their business.

• NISSAN: The car company has threatened to slash 1,300 jobs at its plant in Sunderland as part of its efforts to shift production to elsewhere in Europe.

• ABBEY NATIONAL: Some 8,000 jobs will be axed at the building society if Lloyds TSB succeeds with its 16 billion takeover bid.

• CHASE MANHATTAN: The bank wants to cut 15 percent of its workforce in the City of London.