cards. THE AGREEMENT reached There are a number of reasons by the TGWU with Ford over for these developments. Firstly, job losses at Halewood is a mas- demand for cars in Europe is stagnating, owing to slow growth and For the first time in recent years hish unemplovment as countrics there was united oposition struggle to meet the Maastricht among all British plants in a major But secondly competition is incompany to ciosure pians, waich could have led to national strike crcasing. Unact Ine singic buro Yer union negotiators pean Market rules all limits on threw this chance away and ac- OS O euroN and on the sales of Japanese transcepted a deal which still involves almost 1000 redundancies, only pianos in surope are to ocremovcd in 1999. Slow sales growth in Japan 300 less than originally announced. as the country struggles to escape The new 'people carrier' model recession is encouraging Japanese offered for Halewood was already companies to look abroad. planned before the negotiations. Moving In The promise of a new van, which would secure production at South- But Japan is not the only source of new competition. Increasingly South Korea and Malaysia are However, this just shows how moving into Europe. The South much could have been obtained it the union leadership had been Korean company Daewoo has begun a massive export and investhistoric achievement of unani- ment drive. In particular they have taken over the FSO car plant in PoFord UK plants. land, in one of the biggest car in dustry investments in Eastern That achievement itself was the result of initial strong leadership Europe, volkswagen's pur chase of Skoda. by the union, a positive development which was all too quickly reprime minister Mahathir Mohaversed. The commitments to mad described plans to launch a future production are merely papei big export programme, promises. ATUCU"
This deal is even more unac larly directed at Burope. His projection was that by the end of the ceptable when the vulnerability of century Malaysia was likely to be new "just in time' management sys. producing up to 1 million cars for export account. The Uk sports car and engiSneering company Lotus, bought Quick victory by Malaysia's national car manu involved government assistance. The jobs provided by these subsidies are not 'new". The grants way for companies to get taxpayers to pay for investment which they would have carried out anyway, by using the tarcat of re location - to Spain in tria in BMW's.
Finairy tacie 1s the impact of the increased strength of US car manufacturers in their home battle for markets with firms like LOV. atae acervos de wage restraint and the introduction of new niques. Ford, for example, is now losing both money and market share in Europe.
The plan there, as in other comworkers undergo the same attacks on soos and conditions that Us workers have faced over the last decade.
Both European and American producing in, and exporting to, what are seen as growing markers in China, Latin America (especiany brazu and bast Asia, and away from the European market INDUSTRY Z Halewood.
"The key issue is now the overall restructuring strategy of companies, key locations and the integration of production networks. barcaining away rights is no protection against Only cross-company action to enforce an alternative logic to the logic of restructuring, one that respects the rights of workers and the communities around car plants, can have any effect in resisting the current offensive.
"This is why the agreement at Halewood is such a setback. Howerer, we can be sure that Halewood will not ho the only place where these issues are raised in the European car industry in the coming period. be ian n ti ns a info the