FIAT, the multinational car monopoly based in Italy, is in talks with the German government and the Works Council at Opel, the subsidiary of the American car giant General Motors (GM), about taking over its European factories.
GM Europe employs 26,000 workers at Opel and 5,000 workers at Vauxhall in Britain, at Ellesmere Port and Luton.
US President Barack Obama has ordered GM to restructure its operations to get a bail-out for the debt-laden car monopoly, or face bankruptcy. To do this, GM wants to dump its European operations.
GM Europe said at the weekend that it was in talks with ‘several possible investors’, some of whom showed ‘good and realistic interest’.
Speaking of a takeover of GM Europe, Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said: ‘From an engineering and industrial point of view, this is a marriage made in heaven.’
Fiat’s 750m euro offer for Opel was revealed on the day that the European Commission forecast that production in the European Union (EU) will contract by four per cent this year, with car output plummeting across Europe.
Today, with car sales and production plummeting, and job cuts already 100,000 worldwide, the economic logic of Fiat’s bid for Opel is shaped by the slump and financial collapse.
Marchionne is bidding to take over a major rival in the volume car market. This means plant closures and sackings, whether at the two GM plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton, the six Opel plants in Germany, or the 11 Fiat plants.
More than 9,000 jobs in the Fiat-GM Europe group are under threat immediately, according to the Financial Times.
Union leaders in both Germany and Britain warned yesterday that a Fiat take-over of GM Europe will lead to job losses and closures.
Tony Woodley, a leader of the Unite trade union in Britain described a Fiat takeover as ‘a disaster’. He added: ‘In my view it would mean even more over-capacity in Europe than we have got presently and there is no doubt we would see even more plant closures as a consequence of the Fiat tie-up . . .’
Despite these dire warnings, Unite leaders, like Woodley, are not proposing a fight to stop plant closures and defend jobs. Woodley pleaded with the European governments to set up GM Europe as a private corporation, backed by taxpayers.
Such cowardice and treachery from these union leaders came a day after the news that workers at Visteon plants in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield have delivered a major blow against the Ford bosses.
Through plant occupations, picketing, raising thousands of pounds from the working class and a threat to picket Ford plants in Bridgend and Dagenham, they forced Visteon and Ford to increase their redundancy pay from £4,000 to £40,000, on average.
As John McGuire, the Unite convenor in Belfast said: ‘It shows occupation pays.’ He added: ‘It’s not a victory because people have lost their jobs, but it is a victory that we got Ford Motor Company to put a proper financial settlement on the table.’
The struggle of the Visteon workers serves as a beacon for all carworkers, pointing the way forward in the fight to stop plant closures, and defend jobs, pay and working conditions.
It is clear that there is no job security and pay protection under capitalism. Every car monopoly – Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Peugeot, etc. – has sacked thousands, enforced lay-offs and imposed pay cuts.
The immediate response to the bosses’ offensive must be the occupation of the car plants, exercising workers’ control over these plants, and the mobilisation of the whole trade union in the fight for the nationalisation of the car industry.
This demands the building of a new leadership in the trade unions to replace those, like Woodley and company, who only came on the scene after the Visteon workers had taken action. These leaders refused to pay hardship pay and ‘represented’ the workers in court by agreeing to the bosses’ terms that the occupations stop!
All carworkers should attend the News Line-All Trades Unions Alliance Conference on May 17 which will address these vital issues. (see advert page 2)
