Vauxhall workers wait on Germans

STRIKING General Motors workers at Opel plants in Germany will meet today to decide whether to continue their blockade of a car plant, action that is hitting Vauxhall workers in Britain.

The Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire, which employs 3000 workers, is running out of parts made by the Opel factory in Bochum. Production on Merseyside could cease as early as today.

Ellesmere Port makes the new Astra. A similar plant in Antwerp, Belgium, is already idle because of the Bochum crisis triggered by parent firm General Motors' plan to cut 12,000 jobs from its European payroll, most of them in Germany.

Bochum workers downed tools after the announcement last Thursday and have resisted management and union calls to return to work. Works council boss Dietmar Hahn told his members yesterday there was a 'solid basis' for talks with Opel management.

The union now seems increasingly reconciled to accepting that some jobs will have to go to stem losses.

GM is also under fire in America where there is concern over a regulatory probe into possible accounting abuses of its pension funds. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether GM and five other companies have deliberately manipulated assumptions to enhance earnings.

GM and Ford say the SEC has asked them to provide information on their pension and retiree healthcare plans.