Visteon car workers in Belfast talk to Socialist Worker and Update
Visteon car workers in Belfast talk to Socialist Worker
Here is the text of the leaflet issued by the Socialist Workers Party
The action taken by the workers at the Visteon plant in Belfast deserves the support of every worker in Northern Ireland and beyond.
The Visteon management sacked around 600 workers at the three Visteon plants, Belfast, Enfield and Basildon. The workers, some of whom had been employed at the plants for almost 40 years, were given just 20 minutes notice to clear their lockers. They have also had their pensions frozen and have not received the redundancy package they are entitled to from previous agreements with Ford. Courage This is why workers occupied the factory, and the tactic has spread to Britain where the Enfield plant is also under occupation.
The courage and dignity of the workers stands in stark contrast to the behaviour of the bosses at Ford and Visteon. Workers have sweated to produce profit for Ford and then Visteon for decades. Their reward is to be thrown on the scrapheap without respect or consideration.
They are right to fight for justice. The government can find money for the Royal Bank of Scotland after it went under. Sir Fred Goodwin walked away with a pension pot of £15 million that delivers him over £14,000 a week!
In the US AIG Insurance collected £175 billion from the state—and then bosses paid themselves £165 million in bonuses.
Dispute
For years the bosses partied, but its workers who are presented with the bill when the music stops.
This dispute is part of a wider struggle to defend jobs. The jobs at Visteon are important. The manufacturing process at the Belfast plant is carried out to the highest safety standards. Taking production anywhere else will jeopardise that safety standard.
Matter
These jobs matter also because the local economy cannot afford to lose skilled jobs or afford the knock on effect in our communities when jobs go. The Government has spent billions bailing out and nationalising the failed banks. In the North the Assembly has given millions of pounds to companies in grants through Invest NI. This money could be used to bail out workers and to keep jobs.
Send messages of support to
Davy McMurray dmcmurray@unitetheunion.com Or text John Maguire (Unite convenor) on 07816590380
