The Financial Times of London reported May 13 that Ford cut output or closed plants in Portugal and Poland. More than 2,000 workers in both Genk in Belgium and Cologne in Germany have already been affected by the changes. Vehicle assembly is to be ended at a plant in Belarus.

"In the first quarter of this year, Ford's North American operations earned a record $1.7 billion while its European sibling lost $19 million in a market plagued by overcapacity," the Times reported. By "overcapacity" bosses mean that more is being produced than can be sold profitably.

BMW recently unloaded its Rover car division, after losing nearly $3 billion. Threats by BMW bosses to close its plants in England were met by a massive demonstration last month by auto workers.

Workers at Ford's Dagenham plants in East London were informed the company will cease vehicle assembly and major body construction there in early 2002. With its typical contempt for workers, no details of the number of jobs to be eliminated were provided, forcing workers to find out what they could from the TV, radio, or newspapers.

Press reports indicate that 3,250 jobs will be cut in total, 1,350 of which were previously announced through a move to cut the second shift this coming August. The company says that it expects to create 500 additional jobs by expanding the engine plant at Dagenham.

To head off resistance from workers, the company is encouraging workers to leave "voluntarily" with the inducement of "enhanced" redundancy packages. These would pay workers between £20,000 and £35,000, depending on age and years of service (£1= US$1.49). Workers over 50 can take early retirement with pension in addition to this. The bosses said that workers between the ages of 45 and 49 will be able to apply for deferred early retirement, with a severance payment upon leaving and starting their pensions at 50.

These payments are relatively large here. For example, a worker with 15 years service at a Courtaulds textile mill in Derbyshire, which is closing down, said he would be getting a redundancy payment of £4,000. A worker from Eurest, the company which runs the catering at Dagenham, is losing his job. "I'm only going to get £1,000 for five years," he said. "Make sure you put that in your paper."

Ford is using its moves to implement speedup, a lengthening of the working day, and a pay cut for those remaining after August 2000. These workers will see a drop of more than 15 percent in their wages as shift premiums and allowances disappear with the move to a single shift.

As part of the implementation of a 37.5-hour week, the company has demanded workers work bell-to-bell, and fetch and put back tools outside paid hours. Tea breaks have been shortened and lunch breaks are to be reduced to 30 minutes. A proposal by the company to allow jobs to be loaded to 103 percent was rejected, but workers expect the company to load most jobs to 100 percent after the summer shutdown. A 100 percent job is supposed to be the maximum that an experienced line worker can do working at a steady pace.

Meanwhile, the government moved to back the Phoenix Consortium in its purchase of the Longbridge plant of Rover from BMW. The previous buyer, Alchemy Partners, said that it expected to cut thousands of jobs.

Following the 80,000-strong union march in Birmingham on April 1, it became clear that this resistance and the potential social devastation in the West Midlands had put the government under considerable pressure. BMW sold Longbridge for £10 to the new bosses at Phoenix. The new owners said they will cut less than 1,000 jobs of the 9,500 jobs at the plant, but have not yet announced further cutbacks and concessions at the financially troubled car company. BMW sold Rover's profitable RUV line to Ford.

Caroline Bellamy is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union at Ford Dagenham.  
 
 
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