5,000 workers go as Rover is written off
Some 5,000 employees to lose jobs after last-ditch deal with SAIC fails to materialise.
MG Rover administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers has announced that 5,000 employees at the crumbling car manufacturer are to be made redundant.
Link: MG Rover’s fate is finally sealed
However, prime minister Tony Blair has pledged a £150m support package to help workers being made redundant, as well as companies in the area that supply Rover.
Earlier this morning, PwC said it had received a letter from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp announcing that it would not acquire the Longbridge plant in Birmingham, ending any hope of the car maker being saved from closure.
Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt and Tony Woodley, head of the T&G union, both called the news ‘devastating’.
The company, which employs 6,000 people, was forced into administration last week after talks with PwC. The firm was appointed on Friday 8 April.