The British car industry was at the centre of more strife yesterday when Vauxhall workers in Ellesmere Port downed tools amid fears that 1,000 jobs could be axed. The unofficial walkout, bringing output to a halt, followed comments from Carl-Peter Forster, the European boss of Vauxhall's parent group, General Motors, about possible shift reductions.

British car workers are jumpy because the GM plans come only weeks after Peugeot Citroën announced the closure of its Ryton facility with 2,300 redundancies.

GM, the world's biggest car company, has been in talks with trade unions about production at the Ellesmere Port plant as part of a review of capacity across its three Astra factories in Europe. The company stressed again yesterday that no definite decision had been made but admitted that efforts were needed to improve productivity and match output to lower sales.

A Vauxhall spokesman said he was "sorry" that workers had reacted in the way they had and urged them to return to work. Around 600 cars were lost and a further 800 could follow today if there is no return to work.

Roger Maddison, national officer of Amicus, said members had walked out in reaction to "extremely unhelpful" views expressed to the media by Mr Forster, GM's European president. "This is an emotional reaction from a loyal and highly productive workforce who are understandably fearful for their jobs and the future of the plant," said Mr Maddison. "We would have expected better from such a senior executive of the company."

Up to 900 workers were involved in the walkout, which brought production of Astra cars and the new Astra van to a halt.

Transport and General Workers Union general secretary Tony Woodley used the latest problems to deliver a fresh attack on Britain being the easy place to make cuts. "Britain is the soft touch of Europe when it comes to taking away workers' jobs. That's why Vauxhall has zeroed in on Ellesmere Port when it considers throwing 1,000 car workers on the dole."