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| McCluskey says Unite will fight! |
By Alex Kempshall
Thousands of Honda workers and their families along with
trade unionists from across the country marched and rallied in Swindon last
Saturday to protest and fight against the proposed closure of the Honda plant
in the Wiltshire town. They called on the Japanese company to continue
production at the Swindon plant that employs over 3,500 workers.
At the rally Len McCluskey, the
Unite General Secretary, said his union had no intention to allowing the
company to close this significantly profitable plant. He said that the company
would never have dreamt of doing this to workers in Japan and that Honda should
show the same dignity to their Swindon workers as they would do to Japanese
workers.
There are 3,500 Swindon workers
and thousands more in the supply chain wondering what their future is, and this
in a town with only 10,500 manufacturing jobs. The Honda plant is vitally
important to our manufacturing base in general, and he demanded that the
government step up to the mark and get Honda to treat the workers with respect.
He thanked those who had come
from all over the country and from Europe to show their solidarity with the
Swindon workers. That solidarity builds hope. When working people come out on
the streets to make their voices heard then people do sit up and take notice,
and Honda will be made aware that we won’t lie down and allow them to walk all
over us.
John Cooper, Chair of Unite’s
Automobile National Industrial Sector Committee and also the Unite Convenor at
the Vauxhall Plant at Ellesmere Port, said that Unite’s 100,000 car workers
would fight to save every job and fight to stop Honda ripping the heart out of
Swindon.
He said that we will not allow
it because we remember one of the oldest slogans of our union – “an injury to
one is an injury to all” – and warned that if we allow Honda to walk away from
Swindon then every boss in every boardroom will think they can do the same, and
every car worker from Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port to BMW in Cowley to Nissan in
Sunderland will be the weaker for it.
John said that together let’s
build a wall of solidarity, let’s build a political and industrial campaign
that protects the jobs put at risk by Honda's intention to exit the UK.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s
Shadow Business Secretary, told the rally that the Swindon workers were a
world-class work force and that the plant was a world-class plant that’s worth
fighting for.
She went on to remind us that
the wider economic consequences of the closure would be absolutely devastating,
with £15 billion knocked of Britain’s GDP [gross domestic product], £48 million
lost in tax that could be going to our NHS and public services.
Rebecca promised that Labour
Party, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would fight with the Honda workers.
It’s not only about keeping one plant open, it’s about recognising that
manufacturing is not just in our national DNA but key to our economic destiny.
Over the last few decades it’s manufacturing, not services, that has led the
productivity growth in our economy. With the right support, the right
investment in manufacturing, we could transform our economy. We need to
re-industrialise not de-industrialise Britain.
She went on to say that if Honda
want an electric vehicle market, well let’s give them one. We invest in the
infrastructure that will spur on that investment with vehicle charging points
in every village, town and city. We incentivise people to buy electric vehicles
and other low carbon vehicles. We should use the huge power that government and
our public services have to buy their vehicles from Honda and other British
manufacturers. The biggest thing that governments can do is to support our own
industry and workers here in Britain. We need government support to go across
the supply chain especially in relation to battery technology, we don’t want
those jobs to go overseas, we want to make those batteries here. To create more
jobs, a bigger supply chain with a better future for all.
Honda said in February that it
was going to close the Swindon factory in 2021 as part of restructuring plans.
Production started in 1989 and the plant makes 150,000 vehicles per year.
