Ford Continue to Cut Back across Europe in Overproduction Crisis

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Ford Continue to Cut Back across Europe in Overproduction Crisis

KTH Workers Call for Inquiry into Factory Closure

Alstom Sells Off All Plants in Britain

Ford are still in rationalisation mode as plants at Land Rover in Solihull and Jaguar at Castle Bromwich (Birmingham) and Browns Lane (Coventry), are still under threat. As one of the largest and most powerful multinational monopolies, the company announced plans to axe 3,000 jobs at its plant in Genk. Ford were one of the original companies to offset economies of scale and move capital to where rate of profit is highest in the 1980s by creating the "international car". Plants in Britain, Germany, Belgium and Spain were amongst the new plants it set up to produce a multitude of car components. Along with this plan it sought to corner more of the market in rivalry with other producers, acquiring other companies like Jaguar, Rover and even Mazda from the Japanese amongst others. The latest moves have seen the total announced job losses in recent days pushed up to 7,700 in Europe and North America. Sales have taken a slump and price competition has affected the sales turnover. Ford has said that the Belgian jobs would go as part of its exercise to cut production and scrap plans to produce the next of its focus mid-range car at the Genk factory. Ford workers are wary over the company creating competition for jobs and playing one factory off against another. They are seeing the necessity to step up their solidarity with workers across the world.

Ford Europe's new president, Lewis Booth, showed exactly where the interests of the car conglomerate differed from the workers. He said, "We need to significantly increase the pace of cost reductions in Ford Europe if we want to return to profitability." He also highlighted the serious situation of overproduction: "Overall, industry volumes are down and frankly we do not expect them to pick up in the foreseeable future."

The Focus investment is worth around £176 million for the Genk plant. It is proposing to cut daily capacity of its Mondeo Cars in Genk to 840 from about 1,100. Two other European plants, including Saarlouis in Germany, would handle the production of the new Focus. Genk employs 8,300 workers and that number would drop to about 4,700 by the end of next year as the new job cuts would come on top of earlier announced layoffs.

The workers have reacted angrily and their unions suspect more job cuts at suppliers in the immediate area and across Belgium. This is indeed a similar situation to the Longbridge threat of closure and Alstom in Birmingham where suppliers are all affected. Ford has indicated that it is not going to tolerate loss of profits and is cutting jobs and increasing exploitation through productivity drives to push profits up again. The Belgian cuts come on top of the elimination of 3,000 North American salaried jobs announced on Tuesday and plans to offer redundancy buyouts to 700 salaried workers and 1,000 hourly workers in Germany, announced on Monday. Ford is carrying on in the same way as the memorable closure of the famous Ford Dagenham plant and treating the workers in the same old fashion. It is high time that the Ford workers of the world united and put an end to the global capitalist system, which perpetuates such misery. The days of companies upping sticks and moving out should be declared over and the whole business made illegal. There are few European companies expecting profit growth, at the rates they would like, this year. The effects of overcapacity and overproduction are long-standing. Daimler Chrysler also plan to cut back and utilise pension funds to pay for early retirement packages. As many as 5,000 workers are expected to get the boot from the US Chrysler operations. It wants to reduce its skilled workforce to 7,000 employees from 12,000.

In Britain, dealers highlighted the overproduction crisis when they said that the boost from new September registrations dipped below the sales of the same time last year. Workers throughout the car industry on a world scale see that they have to unite to protect their future. They will not easily respond to the call of capital to line up behind their employers in competition with other workers for jobs.

The workers are preparing to take centre stage and put the full weight of their organisation and consciousness behind their right to a sustained livelihood wherever they are in the world.

Workers at the KTH car component plant in Llanidloes have called for an inquiry into how the factory closed.

The gates closed after the end of the last shift on September 29, with the last 64 of 250 workers laid off over the weekend.

The workers have said that when Kings Triplex Holdings took over the plant it had a £4m turnover. But KTH said the factory had not been running at a profit in recent years. The workers have criticised efforts by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, the Welsh Development Agency and a local task force to keep the factory open, since workers have done all that they could to make the factory a success. They want to know how the company could suddenly become non-viable.

KTH company spokesman David Clarkson said a small number of staff would be kept on to clear the site – now owned by the Welsh Development Agency – by October 31. "It has been assumed that the factory was profitable when we took over but the truth is that the plant has not been making a profit for a number of years," he said. "The ambitious improvement plans seen at Llanidloes couldn't achieve the prices requested by our customers so we lost a quarter of the order book, which in the end meant that it went under."

In June 2001, the government committed itself to working with the WDA to give firms such as KTH the support needed to keep jobs in Wales. It was announced that there was a "breakthrough in discussions on the future of the KTH plant" after a "series of high-level meetings between Triplex Components Group Ltd (TCG), the National Assembly of Wales and the WDA". However, in February this year, the company announced that KTH Wales Ltd was no longer viable. All that the Wales First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, could do was to express his "sympathy for workers at the plant". The news was described by the local county council as "Mid Wales’ equivalent of Corus".

French engineering monopoly Alstom has sold its transmission and distribution arm, which includes several sites in Britain employing thousands of workers.

The sale to French nuclear power group Areva for £657.5m, was described by the company as "another key step" in a "recovery plan" aimed at cutting group debt of about £3.4bn. The transmission and distribution division makes equipment for power generators and distributors and employs 25,000 people, of whom about 3,500 work in this country. These sites are at Stafford, Rugby and Kidsgrove, near Stoke, with sales of £2.2bn, accounting for 15% of Alstom's revenues.

Earlier, Alstom got the go-ahead from the European Commission for a "rescue package". The company has already announced plans to end production at its Birmingham train-making plant when the site completes its single remaining order for Virgin Pendolinos next year. About 1,000 workers are set to be made redundant as the plant at Washwood Heath switches to refurbishing trains. According to news reports, a further 500 staff within the company's British workforce could be affected by "some further restructuring" of its remaining businesses in this country. The reports say that the moves are part of the company's plans to halve its 10,000-strong British workforce within the next two years as it turns its British operations into a non-exporting service business.