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Support Visteon workers!
200 Visteon car plant workers in Belfast are blockading their factory after the Company went into administration today. If they get away with it, over 600 workers in ex-Ford factories in Belfast, Enfield and Basildon will be sacked and left to claim statutory redundancy form the state. Even workers with over 30 years service will only get about 9 grand and most workers a lot less. Also, their pensions plus those of ex-Visteon workers in Swansea and retirees will go into the Pension Protection Fund, which will result in reduced payments. This is the brutal side of capitalism - no bailouts or bonuses like the bankrupt fat cats but bare minimum pay outs and the dole. Visteon UK executives have jumped ship are now employed by their own spin-off 'Visteon Engineering Services'. A life raft for rats escaping the sinking ship!
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Visteon was spun-off by Ford in 2000 as a device to slash costs at the expense of the workforce. Two and then three-tier contracts then followed as well as outsourcing of 'indirect' jobs. However, for Visteon bosses this wasn't enough. They've spent the last 3 1/2 tears demanding that Visteon workers break their Ford 'mirrored' contracts. No doubt there will be some in the unions who will agree with management that if only the workforce had agreed cuts in their pay, pensions, terms & conditions, insolvency could have been avoided. |
The reality is however, that Visteon like General Motors' spin-off Delphi was never viable. Visteon workers were correct to resist and have had at least more income by doing so. It was that successful battle that has given the Belfast workers the confidence to resist now.
These workers want to put pressure on Ford to intervene to stop the sackings. They are appealing to the unions in Ford to support them by not using parts shipped in to replace those from Belfast. If that fails, the occupation can be built to involve the trade union movement and working-class community to force the government to intervene to nationalise Visteon to save these jobs.
Visteon Action Spreads
(from http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17536)
The occupations and protests against job cuts at Visteon have spread this morning.
Some 80 workers are occupying at the car component factory in Enfield, north London. Some 100 workers are protesting outside site in Basildon, Essex while over thirty are occupying.
Frank Jepson Unite Basildon convenor told Socialist Worker, "People here have given unwavering loyalty for 30 years only to be treated with complete contempt. The directors of Visteon have behaved despicably."
The latest protests follow a lead set by Visteon workers in Belfast, who went into occupation yesterday. Workers are demanding action to save over 560 jobs at the three plants.
Visteon’s administrator held meetings at 2 pm yesterday at just six minutes’ notice to announce to the workers that almost all of them were losing their jobs.
Enfield worker Vijay Bhatt told Socialist Worker, “They have done this as a cheap way of closing down the company. People were shell shocked in the meeting. But I wasn’t in work so the first I heard about this was on Sky News.” Rosy Sutherland who has worked at the plant for 30 years, said, “The way we have been treated is appalling. I am 60 but they have taken my pension. We don’t even know if we will get wages for last week. The are treating us like dirt.” |
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Another worker June Dunning told Socialist Worker, “I have been here 33 years. Management have been running this place down for years. It is the management that are in debt but we are paying the price.”
This was despite a promise from Ford, Visteon’s former owner and main customer, that workers would receive the same redundancy deals as those of Ford’s directly employed workers.
One Visteon worker told Socialist Worker that his redundancy had been cut from £30,000 to £9,000 by the company reneging on this deal.
Visteon UK employs some 173 workers at the Basildon plant, 227 in Enfield and 210 in Belfast.
Steve Hart, Unite regional official told Socialist Worker, “ It is vital to keep the fight going. This is not just about redundancy terms. We won’t stand idly by and let our members be treated like dog shit.”
Send messages of support
Enfield and Basildon to stevehart@unitetheunion.com
Belfast to dmcmurray@unitetheunion.com
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