Motor Industry - Anybody there?
WORKERS, JAN 2007 ISSUE
Porsche, the luxury car manufacturer, has bought nearly 28 per cent of Volkswagen. It is forecast that 20,000 jobs are now at risk – 1 in 5 – in VW's German factories. Meanwhile in the US, fully half of Ford employees, over 38,000 workers, have sought redundancy.
Ford has accepted that anyone who wants to go can. Such is the level of debt in Ford – the September quarterly losses were $5.8 billion – that to reduce costs the company is chopping itself to pieces. Ironically temporary workers are being employed to keep production going.
Ford production in Britain now rests on engine production at Dagenham and Bridgend, vans at Southampton, Jaguar and Land Rover brand names in the Midlands and North West, with Aston Martin cars already up for sale. In addition to the Ford bail-out a further 34,400 General Motors workers took voluntary redundancy from GM earlier in 2006.
While Japanese and other Far Eastern car production continues to grow – in Europe, in Britain and in the US – the traditional industries are in terminal decline. Tens of thousands of workers seem to have voted with their feet.