Peugeot
is to create about 700 new jobs as is increases production at its UK plant.
The
jobs will come as a fourth shift is added at the Coventry factory, to increase
the number of 206 cars produced from 200,000 this year to 230,000 in 2003.
Currently
the factory employs about 3,000 workers. The new employees will be taken on
between now and the end of the year.
Around
half of the vehicles made at the plant are exported.
Sir
Ken Jackson, general secretary of the Amicus union, says: "This is
wonderful news for the motor industry at a time when it has seen so much pain.
It is a tremendous shot in the arm for Coventry and the West Midlands as a
whole."
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TGWU
spokesman Tony Woodley, welcomed the news but said: "What we also need to
consider is that any further shift changes and proposals do not make life more
difficult for existing workers, who in recent years have responded with
co-operation and flexibility to what the company has asked of them."
