Factory workers strike back

The company-wide 24-hour strike called by the T&G transport union last month was the latest in a series of union initiatives designed to make General Motors listen to the case against closing the Vauxhall plant in Luton.

It built on the success of the 11,000-strong demonstration in Luton on 20 January, the lobby of General Motors Europe in Zurich on 24 January and the European-wide day of action called by the European Works Council.

And T&G general secretary Bill Morris took the campaign to the United States on 14 February where he met Stephen Yokich, president of the United Autoworkers' Union of America, to discuss possibilities for joint work to save the Luton plant. Morris said: "American workers employed by General Motors now know that the company are prepared to tear up agreements made with them".

Meanwhile members of the MSF and GMB/APEX unions at the Rolls Royce energy plant at Ansty near Coventry staged a one-day strike on 9 February over the company's plans to cut jobs and transfer work to Canada. The company had announced 595 redundancies in the Energy business and a further 50 in the Marine division in December.

A further dispute is brewing at Hillington, near Glasgow, over redundancies there.