City leaders challenged to help save LDV
Mar 4 2009 by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail
TOP auto industry boss Roger King today challenged Birmingham City Council to grant crisis-hit LDV a £10 million emergency loan to help save 7,000 UK jobs from the scrapheap.
The Chief Executive of the Road Haulage Association also added his weight to calls for state support for the stricken Washwood Heath van maker and warned: “LDV must not fail.”
In a direct plea to the Birmingham Mail for immediate cash aid for the factory, Mr King said: “For Birmingham, it is our El Alamein, the ultimate line in the sand. We must not retreat from this one.
“If LDV was a London or Scottish bank, no problem: stuff it full of money, our money, no questions asked.
“But because it is Brummie metal-bashing then it appears expendable,” added the former Northfield Tory MP.
Mr King, also a former Director of Public Affairs for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, issued the rallying call for support for LDV less than 24 hours after hundreds of production workers had voted overwhelmingly for a ten per cent pay cut to help keep the factory alive.
A package of cuts drawn up by senior executives trying to push through a management buyout from Russian owners GAZ was put to workers at a mass meeting at the factory yesterday afternoon.
