Union hopes staff can work on other lines of production
Union bosses have said Nissan should look to employ workers affected by its decision to end the production of its Infiniti vehicles elsewhere at its Sunderland site.
Unite has said there should be job redeployment when it ends the production of its Infiniti Q30 and says it would be working closely with the company to protect the jobs of workers affected by the carmaker’s decision.
Responding to yesterday’s announcement, Unite said it would be seeking assurances on future employment and was confident of securing redeployment opportunities for the 200-plus workers affected.
It is understood there are fewer than 250 workers on the Q30, with 12,000 Infiniti models turned out by the plant out of the 500,000 vehicles produced last year.
Nissan’s announcement to stop production of the Infiniti model at Sunderland follows a decision to stop selling the model in Western Europe amid poor sales.
Production will now shift to Japan as Nissan focuses on sales of the Infiniti Q30 in China and Eastern Europe.
Unite’s national officer Steve Bush said: “This decision, which is driven by poor sales, is obviously sad news.
“Unite is confident, however, that workers on the Infiniti Q30 production line who want to stay with Nissan can be redeployed within the Sunderland plant onto other models.
“In the coming weeks Unite will be working closely with Nissan to protect jobs and ensure that redeployment is carried out in an open and transparent way.
“We will also be seeking assurances on future employment levels and the production of other models at Sunderland.”