Save Jobs, Sack the Bosses

THE GOVERNMENT’S car industry and manufacturing crisis is far from over, despite Phoenix’s acquisition of Rover for £10.

John Dale, Bolsover

On top of huge jobs losses at Ford Dagenham, Nissan UK talks about ending Nissan Micra production unless it cuts costs by 30% at its Sunderland plant within two years. This would threaten 12,000 jobs.

Ford and Nissan claim their profits are ‘savaged’ by the high value of the pound but they have billions in reserves. They should be forced to open their books to see if threatened job losses can be justified.

Other manufacturing companies also claim the pound’s high value is eating into their profits to threaten job losses.

Courtaulds Textiles decision to close its Meridien factory will be a devastating blow to the workers and their families in the Bolsover area.

But last year Courtaulds made over £37 million profit. Marks and Spencer who buy much of the clothing made at Meridien made £500 million profits. But because their profits were halved last year, their big investors want even more cost cutting.

Not content with the low wages they pay workers in their Bolsover factory, they are moving production to factories paying even lower slave wages, in countries like Sri Lanka.

Why should these companies get away with wrecking peoples’ lives? They still make massive profits and their fat-cat directors still get huge salaries. The truth is these big business tycoons want to squeeze even more out of ordinary working people to boost profits, whether they work in Britain, Germany, Japan or Sri Lanka.

All workers whose jobs are threatened should be able to inspect their company’s accounts. Then they could see for themselves how much the directors get paid and how much the company’s got in reserves to keep production going.

A big campaign by clothing and textile workers, car workers and other threatened workers around the country – including industrial action where appropriate – could force the government to intervene. But why should public money be handed to big business to further line their bulging bank accounts?

Any company throwing people out of work should be taken into public ownership and run under democratic workers’ control. If you want to help fight against big business and the way it treats working people, join us!