Holden to shed 200 factory jobs

[DanielXR8]

Holden to shed 200 factory jobs
November 15, 2006 06:32pm
Article from: AAP
HOLDEN will shed 200 jobs at its engine factory in Port Melbourne.

The General Motors-owned car company told workers at its Fishermans Bend factory site that they had two weeks to nominate for the voluntary redundancies.

Holden spokeswoman Maya Donevska said the move was prompted by a downturn in demand for the Family II four cylinder engine, which is used in Daewoo cars sold in South Korea.

"There has been a drop in demand from one of our export customers from 750 engines a day to 500 (a day), therefore there is a need to restructure the workforce," Ms Donevska said.

"This is the export engine which is not to be confused with the V6 engine, which ... goes into some of our cars locally."

Ms Donevska said only Holden's Fishermans Bend site, which has 1230 workers, was affected by the downturn and there were be no further redundancies offered across the company's other operations.

"We've only told one shift, my understanding is that the response has been there are quite a few people who are interested," Ms Donevska said.

"Management are fairly confident that we will be able to get 200."

Ms Donevska said Holden's engine export business had endured "wild fluctuations" in the past, and this was another.

"There has been years where we've exported four million engines from here and some years we've had ... 300,000," she said.

"It's just the export market.

Comment was being sought from the unions.

[Outbackjack]

Merry Christmas holden dudes.....

[csv8]

China ???

[rodderz]

I wouldnt be surprised if the actual reason was a decline in the larger motor vehicle sales, but the reason given was for the smaller engines so as to not take away other buyers from still buying commy's etc

Theres been a bit of this stuff going on from other car makers too, cant blame them either they need to keep the interest up in larger cars

[T_Terror]

which motor is it that they dont need so much of anymore?

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by T_Terror

which motor is it that they dont need so much of anymore?

The 4cl ones they export to daewoo (originally in the Camira but has been updated) for the lanos i think.

[needaXYGT]

bad for the people who loose their job, but looks like its not only ford.

[blackahcdx]

Originally Posted by rodderz

I wouldnt be surprised if the actual reason was a decline in the larger motor vehicle sales, but the reason given was for the smaller engines so as to not take away other buyers from still buying commy's etc

Theres been a bit of this stuff going on from other car makers too, cant blame them either they need to keep the interest up in larger cars

The factory mentioned prooduces only the Family 2 4cyl engine, all of which are exported, most for use in GMDAT cars, has absoloutley nothing to do with the V6 engine plant.