Fight to save Goodyear: 1,400 sign petition against factory closure
A petition launched to save Wolverhampton's Goodyear factory from closure has now passed the 1,400 mark, with former Wolves star Mel Eves among those to lend his support to the campaign.
As of yesterday, a total of 1,416 people had signed the petition which has been set up at change.org.
The petition was was set up by factory staff against the closure of the Bushbury Lane plant, which will see 330 jobs go when it closes in 2017.
On Twitter, Eves confirmed he had signed and added: "Goodyear's is an institution in Wolverhampton - all the very best."
Wolverhampton singer Beverley Knight is among the high-profile stars to have pledged her support for the campaign and Goodyear worker Wayne Devaney who has been backing the petition said Britain's Got Talent star Jean Martyn had also signed.
Mr Devaney, who has worked at the tyre factory for 28 years, said: "The support has been fantastic. We are really pleased and really grateful for the support from the local people.
"We have had support from as far afield as China and Malaysia.
"There's a lot of support, a lot of people are backing us and hoping the plant can be saved."
The latest milestone on the petition comes after it emerged last week that independent assessors will be brought in to examine Goodyear's business case for shutting the site off Stafford Road.
The first redundancies are expected from October this year.
Union bosses have said they are 'optimistic' that the assessment would show the site is 'productive and profitable' and would be enough to prove the case for keeping the 88-year-old plant open.
The company has put up £10,000 towards the cost of the proposed review.
Union representatives are due to meet with Goodyear bosses tomorrow to discuss their proposals for the review.
Among those to sign the petition are John Ellis from Wolverhampton who wrote: "It's important that we keep skilled jobs in the UK, Wolverhampton and the Black Country."
While Clare Parton from Codsall added: "The people of Wolverhampton deserve better."
The Wolverhampton plant was once the European headquarters for the US tyre giant.
At its peak in 1980s the Bushbury Lane factory employed 6,500 people, making tyres for cars, trucks, tractors and even race-winning Formula 1 teams.
But it has suffered death by a thousands cuts, with its workforce gradually eroded over the years as tyre production was steadily stripped away and transferred to other factories in Europe.
