As BMW milk "crisis" to dictate changes to hard-won agreements
No concessions on Rover jobs or Wages
by a car worker.
Over the past 4 weeks there has been a crescendo of leaks to the press suggesting that the Rover car plant at Longbridge, Birmingham will close with the loss of thousands of jobs unless the trade unions agree to vicious new attacks on working practices.
BMW, the owners of Rover, have declared that because of the strength of the pound there has been a fall in sales. They claim Rover is losing vast sums of money, mentioning amounts between £300 and £600 Million. They say that they are not willing to accept this.
Management argue that because productivity is greater in Germany, Rover workers here will have to accept "banking' of hours – a system where you work extra when the company wants you, and are laid off when they don't – in order to save overtime payments. The company say publicly that they want many other savings.
Rover management have been carrying out discussions with a 6 person sub-committee of the Rover Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC). These discussions have been reported to the JNC itself, but the content has been kept secret from the membership.
T&GWU General Secretary Bill Morris, who is supposedly nothing to do with the negotiations, has stated in an interview with The Sun on November 20:
"We cannot afford not to reach an agreement. The consequences of not reaching an agreement would be too catastrophic to contemplate. Both sides recognise the importance of an agreement to protect jobs and to safeguard the interests of the motor industry. It will certainly create some new principles and establish new parameters working in Rover and the motor manufacturing industry."
He went on to admit that he would be prepared to see such agreements spread to other industries, saying "This will be seen as a no winners deal , except for the industry, it will maintain our place as a motor manufacturer".
Only last year the company pushed through the first 3 year deal in Rover, arguing that they needed this for "stability;" they had to plan their costs, they said. They avoided negotiating the "banking" of hours then, though the May 1997 edition of their magazine (Torque) said issues being discussed with the trade unions included "flexible working time".
The 1997 review was supposed to settle all wages and conditions issues for 2 years. It is a signed agreement as is the "Rover Tomorrow" agreement that is supposed to guarantee 'jobs for life'.
BMW are also using this situation to prepare attacks on their German workforce
BMW are trying to use the present crisis in the motor industry to force through things it always wanted plus more besides. The comparison with German workers is quite sickening.
BMW workers in Germany are paid twice as much, are on a 35 hour week , have 6 weeks holiday (compared to 5), have 16 bank holidays and many other benefits. Yet the whole of the media presents the picture in almost daily articles that 'whatever the company says has to be accepted in order to be competitive.
BMWs chief spokesperson in Munich has stated "It is almost a relief to employ people in countries like the UK where you are actually allowed to sack people. The social a costs of employing people in Germany are awful. You have no freedom to decide 'what you do with the workforce."
What is clear from this statement is that the BMW are using this situation to prepare attacks or their German workforce by threatening to move production.
When a delegate conference was held of stewards from the whole of Rover on November 21 the details of the negotiations weren't revealed but it was said that the company was looking at everything. including the sick pay scheme and virtually every other benefit that it has taken the trade unions decades to achieve.
Management need the agreement of the trade union leadership because the only other way to break signed agreements is to give 3 months notice of a change of contract and on the day that it expires if the workers come to work then they have won. But there is a strong chance that they won't and there will be a confrontation.
The response of the TU leadership has been to play into the companies hands. In the September issue of the T&GWU Record, T&G official Tony Woodley argues that productivity increases have been so great in all car firms that they should all be on a 35 hour week, and get wage increases above inflation, and he urges us to "look at the fat cats". He is now sat with the fat cats discussing what can be given away. The term negotiations is used, but only one side is giving.
At the same conference at which Woodley was speaking Peter Unterweger of the International Metalworkers Federation (BMW workers are members of this), said we were seeing "a race to the bottom" 'and we needed international solidarity. Not a word of this has been offered.
The T&GWU has participated in talks throughout the UK motor industry, in which 'banking" hours have been conceded, almost always with the use of threats. This includes Vauxhalls, Jaguar and Peugeot and now Ford management is saying that none of their UK plants are safe, the sort of statement that is always followed by an offensive.
Car workers in the same union, and often the same company, should not be "competitive" with each other unless it is in order to improve conditions towards the best. We must meet across company and Country, and demand that our unions work together against the employers.
The defence of Longbridge should be the clarion call. Defend jobs for life, but not by productivity concessions that end up losing more jobs. If there is not enough work then there should be work sharing with no loss of pay. This is vital because it appears that Woodley is talking about giving up part of the next two wage increases in exchange for a 35 hour week.
Concessions such as this will never be regained. It will be a permanent loss of earnings, as would banking hours in terms of overtime pay.
To the employers cry of poverty – BMW just made a huge profit – we say "open the books" to an elected committee of workers and sympathetic experts. Even The Express has been able to show how BMW turned last years Rover £128 million operating profit into a loss. If the company still feel that they can not operate then it is clear that they and the component industry should be nationalised ,or in the case of Rover re-nationalised.
The agreement in Rover will be for all Rover workers – the company is trying to use the situation at Longbridge to attack all of its employees. If they did close Longbridge then it would affect all the others because they could not sustain a dealer network to market the remaining models. The Longbridge fight is everybody's, but these workers must realise that to give in now will lead to other attacks, and eventually to the destruction of their Trade Union. The only way is to say no and appeal for solidarity to the rest of Rover and BMW.