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Jaguar workers vote against strike

Reuters

LONDON -- Workers at Ford Motor Co.'s luxury British car unit, Jaguar, voted against a strike over plans to cut jobs and scale back production, unions said on Monday.

About 55 percent of workers overturned a union push to strike over Ford's plans to cut 1,150 jobs at the UK carmaker as it scales back production.

The Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' unions said they would continue to campaign against the move.

"The joint unions will keep pushing the company to reconsider their decision and we will continue pushing the government for a change in the law that will help defend UK manufacturing jobs," Amicus national officer Tony Murphy said in a statement.

The unions said in a joint statement that 555 workers out of about 1,000 voted against strike plans due to fears the company would withdraw generous redundancy packages.

The decision paved the way for Jaguar to shift car production from the Browns Lane plant in Coventry, central England to another factory near Birmingham.

"We will continue to consult with union representatives during this difficult period for the Jaguar business and as we move forward with the restructuring proposals announced earlier this year," Jaguar said in a statement.

Jaguar Chief Executive Joe Greenwell said last month the brand would lose hundreds of millions of pounds this year and not break even until 2007 despite the job cuts.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for 1.6 billion pounds ($3.1 billion).

Despite sales growth in Europe and high quality levels, Jaguar has been unable to keep pace with larger rivals in the premium car sector amid a slump in U.S. car sales.

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Stacy94PGT
My first car was a 67 Mustang Coupe, 2nd one was a 67 Cougar XR-7, 3rd one was a 66 Mustang Coupe. Why did I get rid of these cars for ? I know why, because I'm stupid, stupid, stupid.

My next Ford.....