UNION leaders are fighting to safeguard the future of the V6 engine plant in Ellesmere Port.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, visited the Fiat GM Powertrain engine plant, based at Vauxhall Motors, on Friday for talks with the management.

He wanted their assurances on the long-term future of the V6 production and press unit in the town.

But bosses with Fiat GM Power-train, a joint venture to build the engines between Vauxhall's parent company General Motors and Fiat, said they cannot guarantee anything.

And because the V6 is manufactured jointly by those companies, Mr Simpson found that the Vauxhall bosses he met could not provide all the answers to his questions.

Despite this, Amicus spokesman Brian Gallagher said that, for the most part, the visit had been 'very successful'.

He explained: 'Mr Simpson was talking to the directors of Vauxhall and they showed him the factory and filled him in on the new Astra being produced there.

'Mr Simpson raised concerns about the V6 engine and the ongoing situation about the jobs at the engine plant because they are highly-skilled workers there.

'It seems they could be moved across to the body shop, although nothing is concrete. But the management has said there would be no job losses.

'Because the V6 is produced with Fiat managers could not answer specific questions from Mr Simpson.

'But we are continuing to work closely with people on site to try and safeguard their future.'

Mr Gallagher said the general secretary also spoke to shop stewards and Amicus members in the plant about their views on the business and Government manufacturing policy.

A Powertrain spokesman said: 'Of the 4,500 people working on the Vauxhall site about 150 of them work at the engine plant.

'A year ago we went from three shifts down to one because staff there were moving over to the car plant instead.

'In February 2003 we announced that we had no further customer orders for the V6 engine for beyond 2004/05.'

A Vauxhall spokesman said: 'We are seeing really strong orders for the new Astra, and the Vectra, which is also built there, is going great guns.'