Black cabs protest as 156 staff axed

A handful of workers at Coventry-based Manganese Bronze locked themselves in the factory last night after administrator PWC was called in because of a failure to gain new funding.

Unite expressed “outrage” that 156 workers were to be made redundant and called on the Government to step in to save the manufacturer.

Peter Coulson, regional officer for Unite, said the workers’ demonstration ended at around 7pm last night and talks would be held to see if temporary measures could be put in place to secure short-term funding for workers.

National officer Roger Maddison said yesterday: “Only last night PWC were telling us there were significant interested parties. Now the administrators are ruthlessly sacking over 150 highly-skilled workers.”

The administrators said later that they had met staff to explain that, “regrettably”, there will be 156 redundancies with immediate effect.