Auto News 5

Executives' pride in Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant having secured the contract to be the lead factory for the new generation Astra was palpable at the UK media launch. It was clear that union flexibility was the key to the British plant getting the nod over the Germans - securing 2,000 automaker and supplier jobs until at least 2020 - and led to Bochum, instead of Ellesmere Port, facing the axe. No more British built Astras would also have meant no more British Vauxhall cars (the former Luton car plant is now a development site) and no more Ellesmere Port.