Who Will Decide the Fate of Browns Lane? Detroit Must Not Have the Last Word!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Who Will Decide the Fate of Browns Lane? Detroit Must Not Have the Last Word!

Support JAGUAR WORKERS - March and Rally

The Fight for Jaguar in Coventry

Jaguar Workers to Vote on Strike Action

Alstom's Last Shift Clocks Off

Today is the march to Save Jaguar! Ford has breached agreements committing the monopoly to ongoing investment and a secure future for the Browns Lane plant. Ford’s plan is a betrayal of its agreements with the Jaguar workers, who have in the past three years met all the demands placed on them by the car monopoly, and are justly proud of their product.

Ford now has a fight on its hands! The workers and their unions will not agree that there is no alternative, that their livelihoods should be decimated, that their community will be devastated, that the national economy should be wrecked. They will fight to safeguard the jobs under threat, and to safeguard the future of the industry, of the region and of the national economy.

The problem faced by Ford and all monopolies is that industrialisation and increased productivity means a falling rate of profit, as living labour is gradually eliminated. Their main programme to counteract this law of value is to intensify the rate of exploitation, steal raw materials from annexed economies and engage in risky financial speculation. Labour, social programmes and sovereign nations pay the price.

That Jaguar has made a decision to cut 1,150 jobs as "crucial to the company's survival" is not the end of the matter by any means. Should not the workers, who have created so much through their labour over the years only to have it stolen by the Ford monopoly, decide the fate of their own social product?

The issue is being raised by the workers and the people of Coventry: should a few people at the head of a monopoly have the right to close the flagship of this manufacturing city, which survived the blitz and the devastation of the Thatcher years? Are the workers merely an item in a ledger or a pawn in a game of global economics being played far away from where they live and work?

The working class and people of Coventry have a right to decide what is to happen to Browns Lane. They need to organise themselves to deprive Ford Motor Company of the power to make arbitrary decisions that devastate their lives. They need a strategy which defends the interests of labour, of their communities and the national economy as a whole and contributes to the same internationally at a time when grave dangers face humankind.

Should not the government harness their considerable resources to guarantee the livelihoods of the workers and the safeguarding of the region? Is this not what the trade unions have entered into "social partnership" with the government to achieve?

The workers must keep the initiative in their own hands. Such crucial decisions cannot be handed over to any other force. Ford has no right to move its capital anywhere. The Browns Lane plant, built locally, can achieve and maintain production as it always has.

No one has the right to deprive the future generation of jobs and production. Arbitrary decisions on the future of the company must not be allowed to pass. Any decision made because Ford are the "owners" will be opposed! The cause is a vital one and it is up to the workers to save the day.

John Gazey, Lord Mayor of Coventry, will be at the head of the protest march, alongside national union leaders.

A special meeting of Coventry City Council last Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution reaffirming support for workers at Browns Lane.

John Mutton, leader of the Labour opposition group, said Ford's decision to end car production in Coventry was an issue "above politics". He said: "This decision has been made by people living on the other side of the Atlantic who may not have even visited Coventry. They care less about the impact on Coventry than the impact on their shareholders following Ford ' s poor performance." John Mutton said that Coventry had done everything possible over many years to respond to Jaguar's requests for assistance to maintain car production in the city. He said the company have benefited from £86 million of government subsidies. He added: "Ford people in Detroit think Browns Lane is a valuable site for housing. A number of luxury homes could be built on that site to yield a massive return for Ford."

Workers belonging to unions Amicus and T&G at Jaguar's Browns Lane plant will be balloted for industrial action next week following today’s mass demonstration through Coventry City Centre.

Tony Woodley, T&G General Secretary, said: "We call on not just Jaguar workers but also the wider community of Coventry and the West Midlands to stand together and fight this unjust closure. If Ford are allowed to get away with shutting Browns Lane we have real concerns about the future of hundreds of other jobs, and about future jobs for our kids and the community. We urge every person in Coventry to show their support for Jaguar workers by joining us on Saturday. Ford have acted outrageously – let's make them think again."

Derek Simpson, General Secretary of Amicus, said: "The next two weeks are critical in our fight against the closure of Browns Lane. We hope that Saturday's rally and the strike ballot will send a clear message to Ford that Jaguar workers and the people of Coventry will do everything they can to resist the effective closure of Browns Lane. We want them to work with us in considering alternative plans to closure."

Ballot papers for industrial action will be issued to T&G and Amicus members at Browns Lane from Monday. Members will be asked if they are prepared to take strike action to defend the plant. The ballot closes on Monday 13 December.

Ford Jaguar management have finally agreed to meet with the trade unions in the first week of December, and the unions will be demanding the company consider alternatives to mass redundancies and the end of car production at Browns Lane.

By Chris Morley, November 25, 2004

Birmingham's last train building workers today walked through the gates of their historic factory for the last time as production formally reached the end of the line.

About 50 workers clocked off the last shift at 11.30 and said an emotional goodbye to the former Metro-Cammell plant at Washwood Heath which had sustained more than 150 years of rolling stock manufacturing.

They were among 400 shopfloor employees who had campaigned heroically against the decision of French owner Alstom to end production.

The decision was announced in June 2003 and over the past few months workers have left in waves of redundancies.

Originally the final day was to be in August but employees hung on to complete the last train in Sir Richard Branson's £600 million fleet of tilting Pendolino rolling stock.

Tom Keogh, the Amicus union official who led the long fight to save production and up to 1,400 jobs at Washwood Heath, said today that the ending of the last shift marked the end of an era.

He said: "It is a crying shame and a huge pity. There is only one train building factory now left in the UK.

"I have no joy in saying 'I told you so' as huge orders for new trains in this country go to Europe to be imported back here.

"The lads fought all the way but without success. We took our message to the doors of Alstom's Paris headquarters, the Labour Party conference and many other places.

"Only now has Gordon Brown woken up to the fact that there is no level playing field in Europe and, while we play by the rules on procurement, other EU countries don't."