Workers left in limbo, we need nationalisation

At the end of August, a cyberattack halted production at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) car factories. The Socialist spoke to a furloughed worker at a supplier to the car plant about his experience.

I got a phone call from my supervisor to say, “yeah, you’re not coming in. We’ve been hit by a cyber attack and we don’t know how long we’re going to be off for.” Every week after that we’ve had to wait to find out whether we’re going back or not. I’ve been told this morning that I could be back either later this week or next week.

It’s been around a month and agency staff in the supply chain have not been paid. They can put it as holiday if they like, but that takes it away from your holiday later in the year.

For a month, it’s been hit and miss whether we’re going to be back or not. Obviously a lot of us have got houses, jobs, cars, kids, whatever. It’s affecting our material conditions.

I’ve spoken to a few of the colleagues that I worked with. I’m quite annoyed at it, to be honest, because its all we’ve all got. We’re all moved out and got kids or whatever. It’s expensive. I don’t know how many people are going to go back that have been furloughed.

It could be months. We don’t know. Most likely, firms will have to rely on agency work to fill the gap in demand. A lot of the staff don’t want to go back after the month, they’ve already gone elsewhere. So they’re going to have to get low-paid agency workers in for a couple of weeks just to get back up to running.

This week, Jaguar have come out and said that they’ve agreed a £1.5 billion bailout loan from the government. They’re still going to be there, and all the suppliers too, but whether they’re going to be back up to full production, I don’t know.

We don’t know where that £1.5 billion is going to go. They’ve got a lot of suppliers in and around the West Midlands, around the UK and globally as well. It’s going to be a lot to deal with, factories have been shut for the month. JLR relies on hundreds of manufacturers to build these vehicles, and these producers only makes parts for JLR. So it could ripple out into a wider crisis.

We’ve already had deindustrialisation here for the past 50 years. And it’s been tough in our local economy, especially those in smaller towns. There are places that rely purely on JLR to sustain themselves.

What should the government do?

Unions at JLR wanted to push for furlough pay for those working for JLR and all the suppliers, because obviously it’s no fault of their own, and it affects the local community as well. A lot of these people live near these factories and rely on them for their financial stability. So one thing they should have done is push up furlough pay.

Jaguar is a massive part of the West Midlands and it’s been based here since it was founded. It was under the Ford brand and then it was sold off and then Tata bought it in the 2010s. They should renationalise it if they get the chance to. This would be a massive thing to undo the Thatcher-era privatisation. Putting it back under the British government would secure the jobs for those working there and investment.

If the bosses decide to sell JLR, then that places 250,000 people in very perilous conditions. There’s a whole city essentially supporting that company in the local region, from lorry drivers to security guards, factory workers, engineers, and maintenance staff. The government should be nationalising it but the whole affair shows that they’re not on the side of working-class people.

To workers around the country I say “go and join the union, push for unionisation in the workplace and to fight for better working conditions, and push companies to invest in cybersecurity and infrastructure”. Working-class people are the backbone of the industry. Without people, the companies can’t run. And so people need investment as well as the infrastructure.