Swansea car workers fight plant closure


Socialist Party Public Meeting: Support the fight to keep Visteon
open.

Thursday 2 March, 7.30pm. Dyfatty Community Centre, top of High St,
Swansea.

IT’S CRUNCH time for the 650 car workers in the Visteon (formerly
Ford) Swansea Plant. In a clear joint strategy between Ford and Visteon,
almost 230 Swansea workers are to be given the ‘opportunity’ to transfer
to the Ford engine plant in Bridgend.

A Visteon worker

The Swansea plant has been barely able to operate after 89 workers
transferred in January. With a further 200 or so leaving, the plant
wouldn’t be viable. Now it seems that Ford and Visteon have been
secretly outsourcing disc and drum production to a German company,
Kaiser.

Workers have had to suffer threats from the company which was
spun-off from Ford in 2000. The unions were told by UK management in
September that the four UK plants and over 3,000 workers faced
‘meltdown’ if they didn’t make concessions. This meant effectively
ending the ‘mirrored’ terms of ex-Ford contracted employees.

This came after the ‘memorandum of understanding’ in the US earlier
in the year which saw over 20 plants put back under Ford control. This
is part of a ‘fix, sell or close’ strategy by Visteon bosses with Ford’s
shadow increasingly in the background.

As Ford in the US announced a vicious programme of 30,000 sackings
and 14 plant closures, Visteon put 23 plants worldwide in the spotlight,
warning that 12 could close while six could be sold. The UK national
talks were adjourned while the US bosses decided the next step. But,
while Swansea workers have been waiting, Ford and Visteon have been
making their move.

The Swansea plant has been seen, along with Belfast, as the most
vulnerable to closure. The plants don’t figure in the global product
ranges, therefore the sourcing of new products has dried up.

Nationally, the Ford and Visteon convenors’ committee have confirmed
that any attempt to close a Visteon plant will result in a national
dispute. With Swansea one of its biggest customers, the Ford foundry at
Leamington would be directly threatened. It supplied the castings to
Swansea that are machine finished into the final components sent, for
example, to the Ford plant at Southampton.

Now these same castings are being diverted to Kaiser in Germany. The
link between Leamington and Swansea is organic and what happens to
Swansea will eventually happen to Leamington.

The unions must show Ford and Visteon that an alternative strategy
must be found for Swansea. This means the immediate stopping of any
outsourcing and a new product plan for the plant. This would at least
make Swansea workers think twice about wanting to transfer to Bridgend.

If workers do want to transfer, there must be a commitment from
Visteon to replace them. This can only be backed up by the threat of
industrial action. A ballot at Swansea must be campaigned for by the
national leaderships of both the main unions – TGWU and Amicus. This
would trigger the promised solidarity from the other Ford/Visteon
plants.

If necessary, Woodley and Simpson, the union leaders, should front
the call at Swansea and throughout the Ford/Visteon combine. Only this
programme of action can raise the prospect of success for Swansea
workers and give them the confidence to fight.