THE Visteon plants in Belfast, Enfield, and Basildon, formerly owned by the Ford Motor Company, but now supplying parts to the motor car industry, have been occupied, after up to 900 workers were sacked by KPMG liquidators.
These informed the workers that they would have to apply to the government for c
The Visteon workers are determined that their guarantees on pay and conditions, when the company was established out of the existing Ford plant nine years ago, have to be honoured.
Workers at the Enfield plant are very angry at the way that four representatives of KPMG marched into a meeting of the staff called by management on Tuesday ten minutes before the 6am-2pm shift finished.
The four liquidators took over the meeting and told the workers that the company was liquidated, and that all present were redundant from that moment, without any entitlements.
The angry workers occupied the plant the next morning.
Their sacking is only the first stage of what Unite leader, Tony Woodley called, at a Tuesday morning press conference, ‘The Armageddon facing the motor industry’.
He said that an unnamed parts firm was about to go bust, that the government was refusing to give it any support and that if emergency aid was withheld from the motor car industry, by the end of April Vauxhall would be closed, since Obama’s rescue plan for GM did not include a penny for GM’s European operations.
True to form, Woodley did not inform the Visteon workers what was about to happen to them; they were left to experience the shock of instant dismissal which, once again, the union leaders knew about in advance.
True to form, Woodley went on to outline a plan not to defend every job, and every factory, but to work alongside the bosses who have just sacked the Visteon workers, to bring in short-time pay and short-time working for the whole of the motor car industry.
The bosses’ representative at the conference, Lord Digby Jones, advanced the slogan of short-time payment for a two-day week, without being contradicted by Simpson and Woodley who were looking on at him.
Now the Visteon workers have shown the way to fight for jobs.
Instead of waiting for the axe to fall, like sitting ducks, the Vauxhall workers must occupy the plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton, and demand that their jobs be saved from the capitalist crisis by the nationalisation under workers control of GM Vauxhall.
The rest of the motor car industry and motor parts industry must take the same action – occupation coupled with a national campaign for the plants to be nationalised.
Woodley and Simpson refuse to fight for this policy because they are the slavish supporters of capitalism and the Brown government, which believes that only the banks and the bankers are worth saving, and that the rest can go to hell.
Instead Woodley and Simpson have formed a common front with the bosses, who are baying for the workers being put on a two-day week on short-time pay.
Workers in the Unite trade union must tell these leaders plainly that they must resign.
The Unite trade union must give its official support to the Visteon occupations, and must organise the occupation of GM Vauxhall and all threatened plants, and a national campaign for their nationalisation under workers control.
This is the way forward for workers in the motor car and motor parts industries.
