The car industry counts
by Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley
Published in the Liverpool Echo, January
2009
2009 is going to be a difficult year. We start it heading into
what may prove to be the deepest recession any of us have seen.
That means anxiety for millions of working people - not least
those employed in or dependent on the motor industry and its long
supply chain, very many of them working at Vauxhall Land Rover and
Jaguar plants on Merseyside and in Birmingham.
That is why I, and my fellow general secretary Derek Simpson,
have been working with ministers and employers to put together a
package to save Britain’s car industry.
Our principle is simple. Car workers and their families should
not have to pay the price for the economic storm.
This was a crisis made in the City - not on Merseyside or in the
midlands. The blame lies with the greedy bankers, and
certainly not with the skilled, hard-working employees of Jaguar,
Land Rover and Vauxhall.
The case for helping the British car industry is
straight-forward. It is by-and-large profitable with strong product
and faces no problems of the scale it does in the USA.
Our industry is on the ropes because of market collapse,
particularly for the sort of high-value vehicles produced by Jaguar
and Land Rover.
That demand will recover when the world economy starts to move
forward once more. And when it does, Britain needs to have its
iconic brands in place to respond.
That means keeping factories open and our skilled workforce in
employment. Anything else means that the demand will be met from
other countries and at least 70,000 manufacturing jobs will be gone
for good.
So there is a strong business case as well as an overwhelming
social justice case for government help for the motor industry.
That has been recognised in many other countries, including
Germany, France and the USA itself.
Ministers have rightly argued that the owners of Jaguar Land
Rover - the Indian company Tata - should play its part and put
serious money into the company. I am delighted that it is doing
so.
So now is the moment for Gordon Brown to be bold and give our
car industry the sort of backing already offered to the financial
services and construction sectors - backing it would never get from
do-nothing free-market Tories.
One lesson of this crisis is that Britain needs a strong
manufacturing sector. Over-reliance on finance has got us into this
mess - let’s give the car industry the chance to help us get out of
it.
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