The union Unite has agreed a pay deal with Jaguar Land Rover which commits it to a three plant strategy, despite the company previously warning that it would close one over the next decade.
JLR said last September that either its Castle Bromwich or Solihull plant would close. Now though, a deal it has agreed for the Castle Bromwich workers – a five per cent increase in pay this year and the Retail Price Index plus half a per cent next year – secures the future of that site. Solihull, says Unite, will stay because it is the “ancestral home” of the Land Rover.
JLR has confirmed that all three plants will stay open now, despite only two weeks ago at the Paris Motor Show, chief executive of JLR’s owner Tata Carl Peter-Forster saying the company wanted one large operation in the Midlands rather than two separate factories. The company has said all along that merging the two would have a minimal impact on jobs but unions have still pushed for both to remain open.
But those plans have been reversed and, to complete the about turn, JLR chief executive Ralf Speth has labelled this outcome as “a triumph for all concerned.”
Castle Bromwich employs 2,000 people while 5,000 workers are based in Solihull. JlR’s other plant is in Halewood on Merseyside and was never under threat.
