Jaguar Land Rover will extend a planned shutdown of its UK plants in April because of continuing Brexit uncertainty.
The shutdown, which is set for April 8-12, will affect all three of the company’s car plants in Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Halewood, as well as its engine plant in Wolverhampton. It comes in addition to a previously-announced planned maintenance closure set for April 15-23.
In a statement, JLR said the additional week of production stand-down was due to “potential Brexit disruption”. The UK is due to leave the European Union on March 29.
The shutdown was confirmed as the company announced 2019’s holiday dates to its employees across all its UK sites.
News of the shutdown follows an announcement earlier this month that 4500 jobs would be cut from the UK workforce as part of a major cost-cutting programme aimed at turning the company around. The cuts, which account for approximately 10% of the Tata-owned company’s 43,000 UK staff, are in addition to the 1500 workers cut last year.
Even before January’s announcements, the company had begun adjusting the output of its factories in response to market demand, with 2000 workers at the Castle Bromwich factory responsible for the Jaguar XE, Jaguar XF and Jaguar XJ saloons temporarily moving to a three-day working week at the end of 2018.
Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth has previously condemned the lack of certainty in the market, saying that if the right Brexit deal is not secured, “tens of thousands” of jobs could go at the firm.
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But it's not just JLR having
But it's not just JLR having an extended shut down because of Brexit. All large UK car makers are doing it.
All these CEO's are clearly mad not to see the benefits of Brexit if you believe Express and Mail readers. Bojo clearly know's more than all of them combined.
unless no deal is exactly what Labour wants....
Well played Mr Corbyn!
But count me doubtful.... Just seems like a leader who can't lead.
All this talking is great....
All the talk from UK politicians is great, an interesting idea to cancel or extend article 50.
However, NOTHING can be done to article 50 without the approval of the 27 other EU states.
The agreement is not unilateral.
Time is extremely short till we leave regardless of what the UK parliament wants.
Labour, as the only other party who really hold sway, need to put their ass in gear and take a side.
It's all well and good plaming the tories, but bar fringe rebels they have taken a position. Labour's indecisiveness has us in this mess.