THE Unite trade union leadership has reacted to the news that GM has handed over GM Europe to Magna, in a deal bankrolled by the German government, by urging that any pain resulting from the sale must be shared throughout the EU.
The union accepted that there will be redundancies and plant closures as a result of the sale.
It continues, under the Woodley-Simpson leadership, to oppose any action to defend GM jobs, ruling out an occupation of the plants and opposing any demand that the GM plants should be nationalised to save jobs.
The Unite line is that nationalisation is ‘inappropriate’, since it is opposed by the Brown government.
Yesterday, to rub salt into the wounds of the GM workers, Woodley congratulated Brown and Peter Mandelson for their magnificent defence of British jobs. He singled out Mandelson saying that his conduct was ‘exemplary’ and that he had been ‘working his socks off for Britain’.
Magna are expected to sack 2,500 German workers and close the Luton and Antwerp plants, while sacking workers at the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port GM plant.
Unite – instead of organising EU-wide action to defend every job and every plant – has adopted the viewpoint of the Brown government 100 per cent.
In a Newsletter to Luton GMM workers of August 27th 2009, Unite said: ‘In our opinion, Magna’s “Industrial Plan” clearly secures more German jobs at the expense of other jobs around Europe.’
It added: ‘…the Unite union will never endorse (although ultimately we can’t prevent) the takeover of GM by Magna, if our UK plants and UK workers’ jobs are at risk.’
Yesterday the union was continuing to hand out the ‘share the pain’ message through its joint General Secretary, Tony Woodley.
He said that ‘with Magna as the new owner, we need to make sure that British plants and people are not treated disproportionately during the re-structuring that will take place. With that in mind, the union and the government will no doubt continue to negotiate with Magna.’
GM workers in the UK and throughout Europe are not interested in sharing the pain – they want to see a resolute defence of every job and all of the plants.
Unite under Simpson and Woodley is clearly not going to do this and will continue to act as an agency for the Brown-Mandelson government, betraying their members, and their interests in the process.
Workers at GMM Luton and Vauxhall Ellesmere Port must insist that there be immediate mass meetings to decide on a policy for defending every job and all of the plants.
This programme of action must include the occupation of the two plants by the workers, and the establishment of a Council of Action in each area to defend the occupations from state attack.
There must also be a national campaign for a general strike to secure the nationalisation of the GM plants in the UK.
An emergency resolution must be put down on this issue at this month’s TUC Congress.
The whole trade union movement must be mobilised to defend jobs and stop plant closures.
The ‘exemplary’ Mandelson and Brown will ‘work their socks off’ to defeat such a movement. This is why the Labour government must be brought down and be replaced by a workers government that will carry out socialist policies.
The jobs, wages and basic rights of workers in the UK depend on waging and winning this fight. There is not a minute to lose!
