Nissan factory workers sent home till Monday

Dec 10 2008 by Sam Wood, Graeme King & Andrew Mernin, The Journal

CAR maker Nissan last night sent home all 3,500 production workers at its Washington plant and told them not to come back until Monday.

Bosses also revealed they were shutting down lines for six more days before the Christmas break.

Their action to tackle the growing crisis in the car market means there will be just a week of production before workers return from their festive break in the first week of January.

Politicians across the region last night spoke of their shock at the move and called for Government help to bail out the car company.

Nissan said all staff would remain on full pay during the production cutbacks. And, despite revealing sales had fallen 40% in recent months, it said there were no immediate plans for redundancies.

Workers at the factory gate last night wanted to remain anonymous. They spoke of their relief that wages had not been cut, but said they feared things might get worse before they got better.

A spokesman for the company said: “All workers at our Sunderland plant have been sent home until Monday.

“The economic crisis continues to significantly affect all car makers globally, and it is essential that Sunderland continues taking the right action now to protect the future of the company by matching volume to softening customer demand.”

One worker at the plant, spoke to The Journal last night about his fears for the future.

He said: “The day shift were all told that they could go home as they had met their targets. They have been told not to be back in until Monday. The same thing happened when I went in to start the night shift. There have been loads of rumours flying around for weeks – a lot of people are fearful for their jobs at the moment.”

Roger Maddison, national officer for the automotive industry at union Unite, called for the Government to take action to support the car industry.

He also praised Nissan for standing by its staff.

Mr Maddison said: “Compared with a lot of other car companies, Nissan have stood by their workers. Every car company in Europe is having down days in the run-up to Christmas, but many are not keeping workers on full pay.

“Nissan are handling this in the right way and I think the company is the best place of all the car companies to be able to weather the economic storm.

“I think things will get worse before they get better. In the past when we have had recessions, companies have been able to switch to producing left-hand-drive vehicles and sell them on the Continent.

“But now every part of the world is in recession, every market is suffering. People just don’t have the cash to spend on a new car. We need the Government to come up with some measures to help support the industry.”