Unite to hold Visteon pensions' rally at Welsh Assembly
14th January 2010
Unite, the largest union in Wales, will be staging a
demonstration outside the Welsh Assembly on Thursday, 21st January
as hundreds of Unite members continue their fight for pensions’
justice. Assembly Members (AM) are being asked to lend their
support on behalf of the hundreds of former Visteon workers living
in Wales.
WHEN: Thursday, 21st January 2010,
12.30pm
WHERE: Welsh Assembly, Senedd building, Cardiff,
CF99 1NA
Unite members will be holding their rally outside the Welsh
Assembly Senedd building from 12.30pm on Thursday, 21st January.
The lobby centres on promises made by car giant Ford, which
transferred workers to Visteon in 2000.
Last year, Visteon UK went into administration with nearly 1,000
workers at Basildon, Belfast, Enfield and Swansea losing their
jobs. Following a sustained campaign and sit-ins held by workers, a
fair redundancy settlement was reached.
However, Unite is now fighting for pensions justice for 3,000
former workers affected, many of whom live in Wales. The
government’s Pension Protection Fund scheme will only cover a
proportion of the workers’ pensions and Unite believes the taxpayer
should not have to pick up the bill when Ford made firm commitments
to protect its workers’ terms and conditions on their transfer to
Visteon.
Andy Richards, Unite regional secretary who will be leading the
demonstration, said: “Unite will firmly support ex-Visteon workers
fighting for pensions’ justice. Ford made copper-bottomed promises
to the workers before they were transferred to Visteon and we
intend to hold them to these promises.
“We call on not just ex-Visteon workers, but also the wider
community, to stand together and fight this.”
The union will also be taking its members’ case to senior Ford
executives at a meeting in New York on 22nd January.
Unite has vowed to use all legal means to obtain pensions’
justice for the ex-Visteon workers and has already asked the
government’s pensions regulator to investigate whether there was
inappropriate behaviour that resulted in thousands of workers
having to go into the Pension Protection Fund.
Unite members and ex-Visteon staff will be carrying placards
saying: “Ford stole our pensions”, “Ford - time to pay up” and
“Pension justice now”.
ENDS
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