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20 February, 2000As many as 1,800 jobs will be lost with the elimination of one shift at the Dagenham plant.
GREAT BRITAIN: Ford Motor Company is in the news once more. On Friday, February 18, the automaker announced it would start cutting back capacity in Europe by eliminating one shift at its Dagenham plant in east London. For some time now, Ford's share of the auto market in Europe has been in decline, and for the first time in many years their share dropped below 10% in 1999.
In an immediate statement released by the IMF-affiliated Transport and General Workers' Union, its national secretary, Tony Woodley, who is chief negotiator for the car industry unions, said that the closure of one shift at Dagenham could result in the loss of 1,800 jobs. The plant currently employs over 4,000 workers.
The unions are extremely concerned and angry about Ford's decision, and while they understand the company's need to realign capacity with customer demand, Woodley stated they "cannot accept that British workers should once again bear the brunt of the downturn in European capacity. The pain of the downturn should be shared equally ..."
He added that just two years earlier they had reached an agreement with Ford's chairman, Jac Nasser, to end Ford production at Halewood in Merseyside, and that part of this agreement was to secure the future of plants at Dagenham and Southampton. "We expect that agreement to be honoured."
Ford may announce further cutbacks in the next few months after completing a thorough review of its European operations. The company had European sales of 1.7 million cars last year, although its production capacity is 2.25 million.
Woodley declared that "the high value of the pound damaging UK exports and the fact that it is cheaper, easier and quicker to sack UK workers than anywhere else in Europe must play no part in Ford's long-term decisions about Dagenham."
In an immediate statement released by the IMF-affiliated Transport and General Workers' Union, its national secretary, Tony Woodley, who is chief negotiator for the car industry unions, said that the closure of one shift at Dagenham could result in the loss of 1,800 jobs. The plant currently employs over 4,000 workers.
The unions are extremely concerned and angry about Ford's decision, and while they understand the company's need to realign capacity with customer demand, Woodley stated they "cannot accept that British workers should once again bear the brunt of the downturn in European capacity. The pain of the downturn should be shared equally ..."
He added that just two years earlier they had reached an agreement with Ford's chairman, Jac Nasser, to end Ford production at Halewood in Merseyside, and that part of this agreement was to secure the future of plants at Dagenham and Southampton. "We expect that agreement to be honoured."
Ford may announce further cutbacks in the next few months after completing a thorough review of its European operations. The company had European sales of 1.7 million cars last year, although its production capacity is 2.25 million.
Woodley declared that "the high value of the pound damaging UK exports and the fact that it is cheaper, easier and quicker to sack UK workers than anywhere else in Europe must play no part in Ford's long-term decisions about Dagenham."