Dark prospects at Bedford Trucks
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• Bedford management met with union representatives this week to discuss the worsening crisis at the loss-making truck and bus company.
The meeting followed reports of an amazingly candid interview by Robert Stempel, General Motors executive vice-president responsible for the company's truck and bus business, who admitted that prospects at Bedford Trucks are "dark by anybody's standards".
Stempel said in the interview that GM will assess the Bedford operations "piece by piece", and listed Bedford's military vehicles business, its engineering operations and proving ground, as well as its van production operations as businesses which could prove viable in the future. Significantly, he did not include Bedford's truck manufacturing operations in this list.
Union representatives told Bedford management of their concern at the prospects for Bedford Trucks, especially in the light of Stempel's interview in which he conceded that Bedford Trucks may have to be closed, "Although we will have to try every other avenue first."
Bedford told CM, "There has been a lot of press speculation on the more negative possible outcomes for the company, which undermines a great deal of hard work and effort. However, we have got 95% of the applications we need to get the 1,700 voluntary redundancies we seek."