By Gordon Hewitt

Gerry Adams said he would put his full weight behind the Ford/Visteon workers and his full backing for the campaign for everyone to be treated honourably.

“Our struggle has been worthwhile – like the Waterford Crystal workers, we have led the way for everybody else. We want to make other companies think twice about treating workers like this again.” Rick Pineda, occupying worker at Visteon.

Every worker in Northern Ireland and beyond should be
getting behind the Visteon workers. The occupation is still strong and the mood
is still militant.

The Ford/Visteon workers in Belfast have voted to accept a
deal from Ford that goes far beyond the companies standard redundancy package. The offer includes a year’s pay plus pay in lieu of notice, as well
as a backdated pay rise and a further payout linked to each worker’s age and
length of service.

The High Court in Belfast has refused to order the eviction of the occupying Visteon workers in west Belfast. A legal attempt to remove workers was adjourned until a week on Friday.

Belfast Bus drivers stopped Buses in the city centre, in solidarity with the Visteon workers and in order attend the “Rally for Jobs” held by ICTU. The Bus drivers joined hundreds of other workers and took pride of place at the front of the Rally with the Visteon workers.

By Eamonn McCann
The Visteon sit-in is being followed closely by workers across the North and beyond, not least at Nortel, Bombardier, Nu-Track, Translink, NCP, etc., and throughout the public service, where employees are being bombarded with warnings that they have no option but to take what’s coming and accept job losses and worsening conditions.

Closure of Visteon UK
Visteon UK was put into administration last week. But a confidential paper entitled Project Protea,
obtained by The Sunday Times and reproduced here, suggests planning for the rundown of the
Belfast plant had begun at least in the Spring of 2007.

Workers all around the world are watching what is happening at Ford Visteon. The decision to occupy has inspired mil-lions who want to see a real fight back against job losses and attacks on conditions.

On Tuesday 31 March, we the
Ford Visteon workers, occupied our factory in Belfast after managers told us
that the European company, was going into administration.

We were being closed down along
with sister plants in Basildon and Enfield. They instructed all 210 of us to
leave with just 6 minutes notice - without our wages being paid and no
redundancy packages would be honoured. Some of us have 40 yrs service! The
managers had safely transferred their conditions to another Visteon company
just before the company went into administration.