An open letter to Lord Mandelson: You must act now
Feb 23 2009 By Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post
OCTOBER 16
Jaguar Land Rover cuts 200 jobs, bringing the total up to 600 staff lost in a voluntary redundancy scheme.
NOVEMBER 17
LDV sheds 95 jobs at its Washwood Heath factory in Birmingham.
NOVEMBER 27
Lord Mandelson said: “During these tough times, the government will continue to work closely with companies to secure future investment and ensure that the UK remains the location of choice for manufacturers, however large or small.”
NOVEMBER 11
Ian Pearson said: “We recognise that it is a difficult time for the motor industry. There are a number of difficult issues. What is quite clear is that the motor industry right around the world is facing problems. It is a result of the fact that people aren’t buying more cars at the moment.
“We need to help people in the supply chain borrow, and make sure that banks continue to lend to industry in the future. We will look at all options. We want to put pressure on the banks to make lending available.”
NOVEMBER 27 850 Jaguar Land Rover agency workers lose their jobs in the Midlands.
DECEMBER 2
Luxury Midland car firm Aston Martin cuts 600 jobs.
DECEMBER 12
Ian Pearson said: “I’m determined that we do everything we sensibly can to help viable businesses during what are exceptional times as the moment. This is a vastly important sector of the UK economy. And we need to look at what more we can do to support companies that are going through very difficult times at the moment.”
“We recognise as a government that the UK automotive industry is of critical, national importance.”
Alistair Darling said: “What we do need to look at is, in the event of someone getting into difficulty, what would be the wider repercussions on the economy? Now in the present time when you are dealing with a substantial downturn, we would look at these cases on their merits, ask ourselves what are the implications here, perhaps for the chain supply companies.”
DECEMBER 18
Ian Pearson said: “We should look to companies to restructure. But there is a case in certain instances where we possibly need to go further. That’s why we continue to have dialogue with companies.”
DECEMBER 19
Walsall-based car parts firm Wagon Automotive lays off 292 workers.
January 9
Jacqui Smith said: “The detailed decisions like the rescue package are up to the Treasury and Peter Mandelson. “I know that he has an absolute priority to help us and our industry, and the car industry in particular, to get through the situation as healthily as possible, and I support that.”
JANUARY 11
Nissan axes 1,200 jobs at its Sunderland site. On the same day BMW cuts 70 agency staff from its Hams Hall engine-making plant in Warwickshire.
Automotive supplier Stokes Group closes its Walsall plant with the loss of 137 jobs.
JANUARY 12
Gordon Brown said: “Obviously the first responsibilty is with the company itself. It is a worldwide company, it is in a position to raise finance. Equally, however, we want to work with Jaguar Land Rover in solving any problems they have.
“I recognise the importance of the car industry, both to this great manufacturing region, which is at the heart of manufacturing in Britain, and to the future of the whole of Britain. I recognise the great technology that exists here.”
JANUARY 15
Lord Mandelson said: “I want to see the automotive sector remain an important part of Britain’s manufacturing base. We are talking about £480 million spent on research and development by the company, investing heavily in low-carbon technology.
“This is very important not just for the automotive industry but for manufacturing in this country. I would say it wouldn’t be right for anyone to stand by and see this sort of investment go to the wind just because of the current financial circumstances we are facing.”
JANUARY 21
Ian Pearson said: “I appreciate the availability of finance is a key concern for the industry and can assure you careful and urgent consideration is being given to this.”
JANUARY 22
120 jobs go as European parts giant Continental Automotive closes its fuel components facility in Witton to move production to Germany and the Czech Republic.
JANUARY 27
Lord Mandelson said: “This industry is not a lame duck and I am not proposing a bail-out. It has been transformed over the past decade. Productivity has risen, catching up and overtaking both France and Sweden. In Britain today, we have some of the world’s most productive car plants.
“For the future, Britain needs an economy with less financial engineering and more real engineering.”
JANUARY 29
GKN cuts 360 jobs.
FEBRUARY 2
Redditch-based supplier Metal Pressings Group goes bust after 75 years threatening 90 jobs. On February 20, the firm was bought out of administration saving around 65 jobs.
FEBRUARY 23
Nuneaton firm Freeman and Proctor, a tier one supplier to the automotive and aerospace industries, falls into administration, threatening 110 jobs.
FEBRUARY 6
Ford axes 850 jobs in the UK.
Lord Mandelson said: “We’re doing everything we can to address the credit problem. We’ve recapitalised the banks, we’ve agreed to underwrite twenty billion pounds worth of credit lines and lending and tailored a package of bank measures that will start to get bad assets out into the daylight.”
FEBRUARY 12
Peugeot-Citroen said it would cut another 11,000 jobs this year, following the loss of 18,000 staff over the last two years.
FEBRUARY 13
Supplier TRW Automotive reveals 180 job losses at three plants across the region.
FEBRUARY 16
260 jobs are lost as Witton-based supplier Nobel Automotive transfers production to Turkey.
FEBRUARY 17
850 agency workers at BMW’s Mini assembly plant at Oxford are dismissed.
FEBRUARY 19
GKN axes 600 job cuts in the Midlands.
Gordon Brown said: “The car industry in Britain is vitally important to this country and we will do everything we can to support them,
FEBRUARY 19
About 200 DHL-employed workers at Land Rover’s Lode Lane factory are sacked and rehired on inferior terms.
