£2.3bn auto industry loan guarantee package not enough say unions
The Government has been warned that thousands more car workers' jobs could still be lost, on top of those lost at Jaguar Land Rover in Birmingham and Solihull and at Aston Martin in Gaydon.
Ministers were told by union leaders that although a £2.3bn loan guarantee package was a welcome start, more needed to be done.
Tony Woodley, joint leader of Unite, told Business Secretary Lord Mandelson that immediate financial support was needed to keep workers in jobs.
Mr Woodley attended a summit at the Business Department in London with motor company bosses to discuss details of the Government's aid package.
Mr Woodley said as he left the meeting that tens of thousands of jobs were now at risk because of the "collapse" in car sales.
He pressed Lord Mandelson to offer immediate financial support to keep workers in jobs and said more should be done to help access credit to encourage car sales.
"These are the big issues now. The Government has listened intently to what we said. We have made it clear that the announcement was a good start but it will not in itself be quick enough to offset potentially tens of thousands of job losses. We need an immediate cash injection.
"The message is, well done - but there is much more to do."
Mr Woodley said the announcement of loan guarantees and extra help to train car workers had laid down the foundations for the long-term future of the industry but he stressed that he believed more needed to be done to help the industry through the current recession.
Mr Woodley pointed out that some firms, such as Land Rover, had seen their sales slump by 45%.
