Britain's continuing slump has pushed the car industry into deep crisis. Ford bosses are chopping 1,500 jobs and demanding a 40 per cent cut in lay off pay while most of the workforce is already on short time.
They are also pushing a six month pay freeze, prompting a mirror image response from Bie subsidiary Rover. Meanwhile, there are to be 950 redundancies at the Rolls Royce plant in Crewe, Cheshire.
The latest Ford sackings come on top of the 2,100 announced only last February. Albert Caspers, vice president of Ford of Europe, has already publicly stated that the company's Britsh plants could be at risk of closure.
The company is negotiating with the Polish government to transfer produc tion of seats currently made in the UK. It is understood to be considering con tracting out sub-assemblies, janitoring and security. Agreements on the ration of engineering done in Britain rather than Germany have been scrapped.
Around 740 jobs are to go at Halo wood, and 700 at Dagenham. Some 47 jobs at Bridgend engine plant, where there were 188 voluntary redundan cies earlier this year, are also at risk. Southampton is also affected. Any compulsory redundancies at Ford would be the first for 25 years.
Convenors have raised the possi bility of industrial action, although an official union response is not due until October. There has been no lead from the unions nationally.
Ford - still Britain's largest car maker - has shed an average of 3,600 jobs every year since 1980. Last August it put Dagenham and Southampton on three and four day weeks respectively and announced a one-week shutdown at Halewood, blaming the continuing siump in the UK car market.
Workers still get their basic wage, but lose bonuses, allowances and overtime. Now they face a further 40 per cent cut in income.
The Rover freeze comes after the company announced £31m 'FOR operating loss for YEARS, THE the first six months of 1992, a better performance than the year on year figure of £43m. Unions only recently agreed a major 'new deal' package of Japanese-style working practices despite extensive opposition by the rank and file. Wage talks are to go ahead as planned, but any rise not take effect until next May, six months after the anniversary date. The move comes just months after Trade Secretary Heseltine opened a new £200m manufacturing facility. Rolls Royce bosses want 950 vot untary redundancies among the 3,200 Crewe workforce. Over 1,700 jobs have already gone: after this round of cuts, just 2,100 workers will remain. YOUR HARD WORK THESE MANY COMPANY IS PRESENTING YOU WITH THIS MONOGRAMMED GOLF BALL ALONG WITH YOUR LAYOFF NOTICE!!!
No. 29 10 Oct. 1992
International News