THE controversial leader of the union at the Cowley car plant has retired.

Bernard Moss has stepped down from his role as plant convenor after more than 30 years working at the Oxford car plant and has been succeeded by his deputy Chris Bond.

Mr Moss was in charge of the union almost throughout the highly successful period of the Mini being built at Cowley and has been involved at a senior level, firstly in the Transport and General Workers Union and then Unite since the 1970s. During that time ownership of the plant changed from British Leyland to Rover and then BMW.

In recent months, Mr Moss faced criticism over the union’s role when after 850 agency workers lost their jobs at the plant as demand for cars slumped in the recession.

But Mr Moss refused to accept that the union had been weak in its handling of the redundancies.

See Monday’s Oxford Mail for an assessment of Bernard Moss’s time at the helm.

BMW said that car production at Cowley would resume on Monday. A strike at a French parts manufacturer had forced the plant to shut down on Thursday.