Vol. 73/No. 15      April 20, 2009

Visteon UK was established in 2000 from existing Ford car parts plants. The company manufactured fuel rails, injection moldings, and other parts used in Ford’s operations. Production will be moved to Visteon plants elsewhere in the world.

“We’re demanding that the factory stay open, if not then Ford must honor their obligations to workers being laid off and make redundancy [severance] payments in full,” explained John Maguire, the UNITE convener at the Visteon Belfast car parts plant.

Rick Pineda, a worker at the Belfast plant for 11 years, stated, “We weren’t prepared, but when it came to it we didn’t just accept losing our jobs. Nobody moved off the plant. We don’t accept that Ford can use us and dispose of us.”

Patrick Logan, a production worker at the company for 12 years and a shop steward, said, “We wouldn’t let the shift-change security enter the plant and the next morning after working a double shift the remaining security guards left. Management were let out at 7:00 p.m. to a few jeers.” The company-appointed administrators, KMPG, left the following day. KMPG, which the company chose to run all three plants, immediately shut down production and announced that 560 jobs were being cut.  
 
‘We won’t be letting them back in’
“We won’t be letting them back in,” Logan noted. He said that workers had established different teams to organize catering and cleaning of the plant and the surrounding area. The workers organize three shifts for the around-the-clock occupation and hold update meetings daily.

At the Enfield plant in north London, workers were given six minutes’ notice of the plant’s closure. “We went home and then heard that the Belfast Visteon workers had occupied, so we went back to the factory the next day and did the same,” said Phil Wilson a worker at the plant for 17 years. Initially, only 70 workers were able to get access to the factory. Ron Clark, the plant’s deputy convener, explained, “We’ve found ways to get others in.”

Now more than 100 are part of the occupation, while other workers bring food and drinks to those inside the factory. “Our spirits are high. There are people I didn’t expect to see in this kind of struggle, fighting together,” commented Wilson.

As the Militant goes to press, the Financial Times reported that a judge had ordered the eviction of workers from the Enfield plant April 9. Visteon workers appealed to other unionists to turn out that day to show support. A meeting between Visteon and the union was scheduled for April 8.

Scott Edmonds, a shop steward at the Basildon plant, said that since April 1 workers there have organized a picket at both plant entrances 24 hours a day. Motorists honk horns to show their support.

Some of the Basildon workers visited the Enfield site on April 4. The following day a banner was hung at the Belfast plant that read: “Belfast Supports Enfield’s Kevin Nolan.” The banner refers to a court order issued against Nolan, the union’s Enfield plant convener.

The workers in Belfast have received support from Members of Parliament, Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, and Jeffrey Donaldson of the Democratic Unionist Party. Adams addressed a meeting of workers and their relatives in the plant canteen on April 5. Robbie Williams, a steward at the Ford plant at Bridgend, South Wales, and Jimmy Kelly, regional secretary of UNITE, also spoke. Workers at the Waterford Crystal plant in the Republic of Ireland sent a donation of 5,000 euros (US$6,630) to the unionists at the Visteon plant.

Workers at the Belfast plant described the different redundancy terms and conditions that result if Visteon declares bankruptcy, rather than the terms agreed to when the plant was established by Ford. Logan said, “They disregarded the 90 days consultation after announcing redundancies—that would be a further 12 weeks’ pay. Ford had redundancy payments based on the number of years worked. We will get the statutory minimum, thousands of pounds less. The government will now administer the pension fund. There are no guarantees for the workers.”

An article published in the Sunday Times April 5 noted that Ford had promised workers that their terms and conditions would remain for a “lifetime” if they worked at Visteon.

Further layoffs have recently been announced in Belfast, with just under 1,000 workers losing their jobs at aircraft manufacturer Bombardier. Among them the jobs of all 665 temporary workers are being eliminated. “There will be no redundancy package for the temps,” said Simon Lynch, a fabricator at the plant. “And there are no similar jobs to go to in Belfast.”

ólöf Andra Proppe, Ögmundur Jónsson, and Björn Tirsén contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Support the workers at Visteon!
U.S. auto bosses, gov’t press for deep concessions from workers
Quebec professors, students go on strike  
 
 
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