Hope for settlement in Visteon dispute
Thursday, 9 April 2009 10:36There are increasing hopes for a settlement in the dispute involving Visteon workers in Belfast.
Staff are set to meet with union officials who have just returned from New York talks with management, with a spokesman for the union Unite saying he was optimistic.
'It seems to be the only thing there left to me is to try and get the best financial settlement for people who have lost their jobs,' he said.
Around 210 workers in Belfast have held a sit-in since managers announced the closure of the car components company's operations ten days ago.
Protests had then spread to plants in Enfield in north London and Basildon in Essex.
The union spokesman added: 'There seems to be no possibility at all of the plants remaining open, no possibility of them coming out of administration.'
Former owner Ford, which sold the operation in 2000, has come under pressure to intervene from workers who want their Ford contracts honoured.
They are pressing for a better redundancy package.
A few hundred turned out for a rally to the west Belfast factory yesterday.
Visteon was closed after making massive losses, which were subsidised by its US parent company.
Belfast councillors are to debate a motion today calling on Stormont to intervene.
