British GM workers end strike at Vauxhall plant

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) Workers at General Motors Europe's Ellesmere Port plant in Britain returned to work on Friday, ending a wildcat strike over plans by the company to cut nearly 1,000 jobs at the factory, a union said.

A Transport&General Workers Union (T&G) spokesman said operations at the plant resumed on Friday after the morning shift returned to work.

Workers at the plant, in northwest England, staged a spontaneous walkout on Thursday which halted production. Staff on the night shift also did not show up for work, unions said.

More talks over plans to streamline production of the Opel/Vauxhall Astra model between GM Europe and labour unions were scheduled for Monday but unions said they were not optimistic about preventing more UK car manufacturing job losses.

The strike was in response to comments by GM Europe President Car-Peter Forster on Wednesday that the company had proposed cutting jobs at the plant and that proposals by unions to spread production cuts over other GM plants in Europe were ''not super-attractive''.

Any British job losses would follow last month's decision by French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen to close its central England plant next year, eliminating 2,300 jobs, and the collapse of British carmaker MG Rover last year.

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