Vol. 73/No. 19      May 18, 2009

According to the offer made by Visteon, most of the 610 workers will receive 12 months’ in redundancy payments. About 48 workers who were hired after Ford spun off its parts production as Visteon nine years ago will receive six months’ pay. The company’s offer includes an enhanced redundancy payment, money in lieu of notice of layoff, and owed holiday pay.

On March 31 Visteon informed workers that their plants would close that day. Workers occupied the plants in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Enfield, just outside London. They organized an ongoing protest outside the plant in Basildon, also near London. The workers demanded that Visteon pay the full redundancy provided by the contract.

At the Belfast plant workers have voted to accept the company offer but to remain inside the plant until they start receiving redundancy payments.

“When you’re dealing with the devil you don’t leave until the money’s in the bank,” said John Maguire, UNITE convenor (shop steward) at the Belfast plant. “When we do go, we’ll walk out of here with our heads held high and our dignity intact.” UNITE is the union that organizes workers in the three plants.

As workers discussed the offer they continued to build support for their fight. A delegation of workers from the Visteon plant in Enfield joined the annual May Day march through central London.

Workers at Enfield initially occupied the plant in March but withdrew a few days later to avoid a confrontation with the cops. One of those in the delegation, Cindy Rahmah, said that Visteon “assumed we wouldn’t fight and that this was the end when they announced the job cuts.”

“I never took notice of much before this, but now I’ve learnt that because we fought we’ve forced them to negotiate,” said Tom Fox, another Enfield worker.

Describing Visteon’s initial decision to declare bankruptcy and refuse to pay the workers any redundancy pay, Ray Dixon explained, “What happened to us could have happened to any other worker. They treated us like criminals—but they were the ones who stole our money.”

“We’ve lost the jobs, but this is a good financial settlement for the majority of the workers,” explained John Maguire from Belfast. “Unfortunately 23 Belfast workers and 25 English workers who were recently hired won’t receive this.”

“We have had tremendous support from local unions and from local politicians. Now we’ll need to find ways to press the company for our pensions,” he added.

Workers at the Belfast plant were keen to explain to Militant reporters how workers who are Catholic and those who are Protestant fought side by side during the dispute. The British rulers have sought for decades to keep workers in North Ireland divided.

“They underestimated us. Our fight has won us a reasonable redundancy offer which should put us on a minimum of £30,000,” explained Joe Monte, a worker at the Enfield plant (£1 = US$1.50). Monte was speaking at a Militant Labor Forum in London that he attended with five other Visteon workers.

“We voted 100 percent to accept the new offer. If we hadn’t taken a stand we would have gotten nothing,” said Rob Fitch, a worker and shop steward at the Basildon plant. “Fighting the company was forced on us—and the way the economy is going, other workers will have to face this.”

Up to 40 workers at a former Visteon plant in Swansea, South Wales, walked off the job following the April 28 sacking of Rob Williams, the UNITE convenor at the plant, according to the South Wales Evening Post. Williams had visited the Visteon occupation in Belfast to offer support.

Bob Crow, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union, visited the picket line at Basildon April 27. He said that Visteon had moved the plant’s production to the Czech Republic, complaining the move was one more example of the European Union “wanting to turn Europe into a neoliberal free trade area,” The Morning Star wrote. Opposition to Visteon’s decision to move work to other countries has been a feature of union leaders’ protectionist stance throughout the dispute, weakening the workers’ ability to reach for support to other workers across borders.

Some of the Enfield workers are planning to participate in the national March for Jobs on May 16 called by UNITE in Birmingham.

Celia Pugh in London contributed to this article.
 
 
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