Former Visteon car plant staff could end up with redundancy deal

Former workers at the Visteon car plant may benefit from a redundancy package after all, as representatives are due to meet with Ford executives today to negotiate a deal.

Protests started earlier this month when more than 500 workers were made redundant with just one hour’s notice. The workers claim they were given guarantees on pay and conditions when the company was sold off by Ford nine years ago.

Ford will fly executives over to meet with union officials and representatives from plants in Belfast, Enfield and Basildon tomorrow. However, negotiations between the parties last week in New York failed to come to any agreement.

More than 100 workers remain outside the gates of the factory in Enfield, and union representatives told the Guardian that they expect to extend the protests to the other factories in Ireland and England if a deal is not reached.

Teachers recently took time off from attending the National Union of Teachers national conference in Cardiff to picket in support of the car workers.