General Motors is considering throwing a lifeline to workers at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant by building the latest Astra car at the site.
Under plans being considered by Opel/Vauxhall, GM's European arm, production of the Astra will end at the Rüsselsheim site in Germany, with all Astra work moving to Ellesmere Port and Gliwice, Poland, from 2015.
Ellesmere Port, which employs 2,100 workers directly, has been one of the plants earmarked for closure under a review of GM's continental operations. Opel/Vauxhall lost $747m (£463m) last year – a performance described by GM as "simply unacceptable".
A supplier to the Ellesmere Port plant, who told the Guardian in March that the mood inside the factory was "grim", said there had been a change in atmosphere in recent weeks. Speaking anonymously, the supplier said the rumour sweeping the plant is that the Astra will be built in three shifts at the site – raising production capacity from around 180,000 units per year to 250,000. Currently, one Astra model is built at Ellesmere Port, but at least two would be built under the plan.
"There is a more optimistic feel about the place," said the supplier. "Certainly people are not as gloomy as they were."
It is understood that there will be no official announcement this week and discussions are ongoing. The company's European works council, an employee representatives' group, met Opel/Vauxhall executives on Tuesday.
The head of Opel's works council appeared to confirm the plans. Wolfgang Schäfer-Klug rejected proposals to stop producing the Astra at the Rüsselsheim works. Schäfer-Klug said in a statement that it would be a "wrong decision of catastrophic proportions" should the Astra be produced at Gliwice and Ellesmere Port only.
If Opel/Vauxhall pushes ahead with the plan, there will be question marks over the future of Rüsselsheim's sister plant in Bochum.
Schäfer-Klug reminded management that Rüsselsheim agreed to abstain from production of the Astra in 2011 in order to benefit sites in Poland and the UK. He also criticised management for failing to be open about its production plans in Europe.
Vauxhall declined to comment on the speculation but in a statement Opel/Vauxhall hinted that an announcement is imminent. It said it had presented manufacturing plans to its European employee representatives and, after a consultation with those representatives, would "make a decision as to which plants will produce the next-generation Astra as of 2015".
The statement added that the Astra plants would achieve the holy grail for Ellesmere Port workers: a three-shift operation. "Management will seek support for a plan to invest more than €300m (£240m) in its next-generation Astra production facilities and run the plants on three shifts in order to optimise efficiency," it said. The Opel/Vauxhall statement added: "The upcoming allocation decision of the next generation Astra is part of a bigger plan to make Opel/Vauxhall's operations in Europe healthy and sustainable for the future."
The business secretary, Vince Cable, and the Unite trade union have been lobbying heavily to keep Ellesmere Port open. Speaking at the Geneva Motor Show in March, Cable ruled out using state aid to sway GM's decision, but said there was a strong case for keeping open one of the carmaker's most efficient factories.
"The UK has a very, very good case and we have made a strong pitch to them," he said. Including suppliers, the Ellesmere Port site employs 2,700 people.
