Visteon workers to ignore eviction order

None of the workers threatened with eviction from Visteon's west Belfast site are expected to appear at a hearing at Belfast High Court today.

Workers holding a sit in protest at the factory in protest at the way they have been treated by the company have been served with a notice of eviction by administrators KPMG which stated that they must leave the site by today.

However, the former employers were expected to ignore the deadline and not attend legal proceedings regarding their ongoing protest at the High Court today.

A source from Unite last night said the eviction notice had not named any specific people and that there would be no-one from Unite representing the former Visteon employees in court today.

Today’s deadline comes just hours after West Belfast Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Alex Attwood tabled an emergency question to Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster on the situation. “It was telling that the Minister confirmed that despite attempts to talk to the head of Ford Europe, to date her phone calls have not been received. This says much about Ford and their treatment of a workforce in west Belfast that has served Ford well through thick and thin,” he said.

Hopes of a resolution to the long-running Visteon dispute were dashed last week after the union representing workers at the closed car parts factory rejected a new severance pay offer from their former employers.

Visteon had offered to make an immediate cash payment equivalent to 16 weeks of workers’ previous pay, with additional payments to be made over time.

No-one from KPMG was available to comment.

This article is from The Belfast Telegraph