Sacked workers end sit-in protest

Workers have vowed to continue fighting for a settlemen

BBC April 9, 2009

A sit-in protest by 230 London workers made redundant by US car parts firm Visteon has ended.

The employees at the firm in Enfield, north London, lost their jobs last week when Visteon UK collapsed.

They
have accused the firm of failing to deliver pay-off deals but agreed to
end the sit-in after Visteon's UK parent company agreed to meet them.

Visteon has insisted it had no choice but to put its UK operation into administration, despite the impact.

Kevin Nolan, of the Unite union, said: "They have done 20, 30 years service, sometimes more than that.

"For this big company to put 600 employees straight into poverty is an absolute disgrace."

Describing the protest, sacked worker Richard Bruce said: "It is desperate stuff for desperate times.

"The company has dumped on us from a great height with nothing in the bank."

'Listened carefully'

Workers
staging the rooftop protest and sit-in had been threatened with
eviction by Monday. But Tuesday's meeting prompted them to leave before
the deadline.

Picketing, however, outside the plant is continuing.

After
a meeting with the Unite union in New York on Wednesday, Bill Quigley,
executive vice president and CFO of the Visteon Corporation, said: "We
listened carefully to all of the concerns voiced by the union
delegation on behalf of their members who were previously employed by
Visteon UK Ltd.

"We advised the union it was with
considerable regret that we concluded we had no other option but to
place these long-term loss-making manufacturing operations into
administration, despite the subsequent impact on the people employed
there."