Unfortunately for the whole automotive industry but for 6,000 workers in particular, BMW has decided to cut UK production of its MINI models due to the much-debated economic crisis. The news completely demoralized British BMW employees who are now forced take a Christmas pay cut plus a longer holiday than initially planned. In other words, 6,000 BMW employees working in the UK MINI production facilities will be off from December 7 to January 5, The Sun reported today, opposed to the initial holiday scheduled from December 22 to January 2.
More importantly, the 6,000 workers will also lose an allowance of approximately 250 pounds per month which, according to the aforementioned source, means more than a fifth of some wages for a couple of employees.
“It’s come at a terrible time with Christmas coming up, when you really need that extra cash. We’ve had to take the odd extra week off in the past
but nothing like as long as this. Naturally everyone is pretty demoralized and worrying about how to look after their families. Suddenly the credit crunch has become a very real thing for all of us,” a source at BMW's Swindon production plant was quoted as saying by The Sun.
The German carmaker also has a production facility near Birmingham employing approximately 1,000 workers but no decision has been announced yet.
However, BMW has one single goal for 2008: to produce approximately 237,700 MINI models in the United Kingdom, almost the same number as in 2007, in order to maintain the production capacity at the same level, without cutting jobs or lowering production of major plants.
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