Dunlop Closure:
Another Transnational to Pull Out of
Birmingham
In the aftermath of the recent BMW sell off of Rover to the
Phoenix consortium another giant motor industry supplier is due to wind down
its operations in Birmingham. The giant tyre producer, Dunlop, is making new
arrangements to concentrate its production and Europe is going to be the area
where most emphasis will be focused. There are 14 sites across Europe. It has
been established that capacity in Birmingham would continue to exceed demand
for the foreseeable future. The factory produces 9,200 tyres a day, but in
future it will concentrate on sales and marketing, finance and IT, although
tyres for sports cars will continue to be built on its next door site.
The company has shed crocodile tears regarding workers and
their families. The initial cost in workers' jobs is estimated at 600. Once
more workers are faced with a fait accompli in terms of where capitalist
production takes place. Once again workers are faced with marginalisation in
the decisions of a monopoly capitalist concern and their marginalisation
overall in terms of the direction of the economy and of the decisions which
affect their lives. Yet again it makes it abundantly clear that workers need to
organise around their own programme to fight to Stop Paying the Rich –
Increase Investments in Social Programmes, and in the course of this get
organised as a class so as to win the battle to constitute themselves as the
nation.
Union leaders at Dunlop have described the situation at the
plant as, "treacherous betrayal". John Oakes from the GMB said on
Thursday that the decision was ruthless, and convenors at the plant have called
for urgent talks to see how the new arrangements by the company can be
challenged. John Oakes described the situation as a "brutal shock"
and he said, "We are still trying to digest this devastating news. It
seems to me they are just closing the plant down piece by piece. We are
planning to sit down and formulate a policy."
The workers are looking into how viable alternatives can be
worked out.
The workforce was told during their lunch break that the
car division would be closed. The light truck, steel textile and compound
preparation departments as well as the finished goods stores will also be shut
down. The job losses are planned to come into effect from September.
The Erdington complex, now run by Wolverhampton-based
Goodyear, comes after 650 jobs were shed in March with the closure of the truck
tyre wing. In the context of sharp market competition last year, Goodyear
struck a deal with Dunlop's owners – the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation
– which effectively merged the two companies' operations in America and
Europe. The rationalisation programme has seen the closure of the Goodyear tyre
plant in Italy. Some 1,700 worked at the Birmingham Dunlop site last year and
because of the 650 jobs lost already with the closure of the truck tyre wing
and the present announcement of 600 jobs to go, there will be only 500 jobs
left at the landmark Fort Dunlop site. The main problem is the crisis of
overproduction in tyres.
Dunlop was taken out of Dublin to Coventry in 1902 and then
on to Aston Cross. The company moved to "The Fort" in 1916. The
landmark can be seen from the M6 on the approach to the Birmingham Expressway
at Gravelly Hill. The Fort stands next door to the Jaguar Cars Castle Bromwich
Plant. The area has been called an industrial town within a city. The Fort was
more than just a vast factory but became a whole community and way of life for
generations of Dunlop workers. Workers developed a social life, with a thriving
sports club, theatre, dancing and cinema. Today the Fort stands derelict and
its prospects are for development as residential and leisure facilities. Mostly
the Fort has ended its life as a 590,000 square foot storage area.
At its height Dunlop was the ninth biggest company in
Britain. In 1981, during the recession, the company was still turning over
£1,386 million. It was not until 1984 that the Japanese Sumitomo Rubber
Industries bought Dunlop's European tyre business to create SP tyres. In
September 1999, Goodyear joined forces with the company to create one of the
largest global tyre companies.
Workers are seeing traditional industries time and time
again closed. The capitalist system makes workers redundant without any concern
for them or their families' future prospects. The only concern is maximising
profit. Workers need to combat the arrangements the mega-monopolies make
without consideration for the workers. Rover workers continue to face the
problem just like the Dunlop workers. This confirms that the most important
priority for the workers is the fight that their basic right to a livelihood be
given a guarantee in law. Workers need to affirm themselves to deliver their
own pro-social programme.
West Midlands Correspondent
[WDIE note: For more background material on the
Dunlop closure, see the Readers’ Forum articles, "On
Overproduction". They appeared in WDIE, numbers 14, 18, 24 and 29.]
