The closure is part of GM's moves to eliminate 5,000 jobs in Europe as it seeks to cut costs and trim production in face of slumping sales and increasing competition in the auto industry. The one-day strike builds on actions by some 40,000 workers at GM in Europe who stopped work January 25 as part of a union-organized day of action. A march a week earlier drew 10,000 people into the streets of Luton protesting the company's layoff plans.

Workers at Luton picketed at all the plant gates February 23 and national television news showed pictures of cars turning away as workers refused to cross the picket lines. "The AEEU will not cross the picket line," Mr. Haye, a TGWU shop steward, told the Militant during the strike. "We are in the same boat after all. Call it the Vauxhall Titanic. Our object is to keep the plant open but we are the [company's] scapegoats," he said. "The shareholders are looked after more than the workforce. It seems I am not worth the price of a car."

Haye said he thinks the government should step in to save the plant.

The government's "allegiance to the USA is so sweet. They could have done something. Five thousand other jobs are dependent upon our works," he said, noting the wide economic impact the plant closing would have.

Stephen Byers, the Labour government's Trade and Industry Secretary, earlier promised that "our key aim will be to find new job opportunities to replace those being lost over the next year." He has said little about the crisis since.

Union officials plan to fly to Detroit in order to talk with GM bosses. "We will be meeting... to analyze the effects of Friday's action," TGWU regional organizer John Street told a local newspaper. "We will look at the options open to us and decide whether to do it again."  
 
 
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