Greenpeace UK Demo Disrupts Ford Land Rover Plant
Date: 17-May-05
Country: UK
The group of 31 stopped production of Ford's Range Rover sports utility vehicles to protest their "gas-guzzling" fuel consumption.
Police said 15 people were arrested for trespassing.
"We're really pleased," a Greenpeace spokeswoman told Reuters, adding that the protest had been good natured.
"We managed to stop production of Range Rovers for a whole day and we sent a very clear message to the company that it's completely unacceptable that they're making these gas-guzzlers, especially for urban use.
"They really need to be looking to improve the efficiency of their vehicles straight away in order to tackle climate change."
The group slipped past security at the Land Rover factory in Solihull near Birmingham at around 7 a.m. and chained themselves to an assembly line producing the 45,000 pound ($83,000) Range Rover model.
A Land Rover spokesman said production had run normally for its other models, including the Range Rover Sport, the Freelander and Discovery and the Land Rover Defender.
The affected line, where protesters chained themselves to vehicle chassis, normally turns out nine Range Rovers an hour.
"The action that has been taken by Greenpeace is damaging in so far as it has disrupted production in an environment where the automotive industry here is battling very hard," a Land Rover spokesman said.
"Today's action is counterproductive to meeting some of the targets that they would like us to achieve," he added.
"You can't achieve the sort of improvements to fuel economy that Greenpeace and ourselves would like to see without having a sustainable, profitable business," he added.
Greenpeace says the new Range Rover Sport model does fewer miles to the gallon than the Model T Ford built 80 years ago.
Last month the unrelated MG Rover car company, based in nearby Longbridge, collapsed with the loss of 5,000 jobs after it failed to clinch a rescue deal with a Chinese car company.