plastics firm flees britain
WORKERS, FEB 2005 ISSUE
Rubber and plastics processor Trelleborg announced major restructuring of its British seals business last month, affecting the jobs of around 850 workers. After closing its South Wales plant at Milford Haven in October, it laid plans to close its North Wales plant at Newtown and another at Ross-on-Wye. It also said it wanted to relocate the technical centre and headquarters from Tewkesbury closer to Birmingham, to facilitate the amalgamation of an office and warehouse in Solihull, which will also close. Two manufacturing sites in Derbyshire may also amalgamate.
Work continues to move to the company site in Poland (where there is still 40% unemployment) and Tijuana, Mexico. Some tank-track wheels business is being moved to Leicester from Tewkesbury. The company has agreed to open a new factory in Bangalore, India, and is considering manufacture in China. The factory in Brazil continues to grow slowly. Meanwhile the factory at Bridgwater, Somerset, apparently safe at the moment, could miss the safety net in the next round and move to Eastern Europe.
Needless to say, workers on all sites are reeling from the changes. There is no history of solidarity between sites, as the company has grown by acquiring companies, rather than organically. Natural growth generally helps in building stronger union organisation, as workers tend to know each other better.
Some sites have rising order books. But this does not stop the relentless drive to change - to raise the rate of profit even higher. The products are mainly low-value articles and so could easily be produced anywhere in the world, wherever the company thinks there are cheaper rates. The word in the industry is that you can't get space on container ships out of Britain because they are all fully loaded with British machinery going abroad.