military procurement - german lorries for army
WORKERS, NOV 2004 ISSUE
The Ministry of Defence has given a £1 billion order for 5,000 trucks, the biggest military vehicle contract for 25 years, to a German company. MAN ERF will carry out half of the order in Austria, half in Britain.
The rejected bid, by the Birmingham-based commercial vehicle maker LDV, would have given Britain a strategic military truck manufacturing capability once again. It would have created 600 jobs in Britain and would also have provided work for 140 other British suppliers.
The Ministry claims that LDV overstated the number of jobs that would have been created. The Transport and General Workers' Union, Amicus and the Birmingham Economic Information Centre all stand by their assessment that LDV would have created far more British jobs.