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Visteon: when workers are forced to fight
When Visteon managers sacked the entire workforce
with six minutes’ notice they expected the workers to walk away heads
bowed. Instead, they had unleashed a bitter two-month battle of
occupations, roof-top protests, 24-hour pickets, lobbies and
demonstrations. PAULA MITCHELL writes on the importance of this dispute
to the changing consciousness of workers in Britain.
AT THE END of March, Visteon UK went into
administration. Six hundred workers in Belfast, Basildon and Enfield
were sacked with six minutes’ notice. They were left to claim statutory
redundancy payments. Even workers with over 30 years’ service would only
have got about £9,000, most a lot less. Their pensions, those of
ex-Visteon workers in Swansea and retirees, went into the Pension
Protection Fund, which would result in reduced payments.
Meanwhile, Visteon UK executives saved their
pensions and fat-cat salaries through being employed by their own
Visteon Engineering Services set up prior to administration. They
expected the workers would walk meekly away.
But, as Basildon Unite convener, Frank Jepson,
explained in The Socialist (13 May): "The Irish Visteon workers in
Belfast took a proactive stance, refusing to leave the factory. At first
our guys were shocked, because they had probably trusted the employer
too much and believed that Visteon UK directors were trying to make the
business viable. When it happened the guys were on their knees, their
guts were kicked out. Also, Kevin Nolan (the Enfield convener) and
myself were inexperienced. The place was covered with security guards. I
think there wasn’t enough confidence at that point to make a stand. But
that evening Kevin and I spoke to each other, we rang round when
everyone had had time to digest what had happened and planned to come
back the next morning, 10am, to storm both the plants at the same time".
Thus began a seven-week struggle, drawing to a close
on 18 May, as the workers exited the plants having won a victory, a
substantial financial package from Ford, via Visteon.
Militant class action
THE FUNDAMENTAL LESSON of the Visteon struggle is
that militant action can win. The workers did not walk away. They defied
the law, occupied their plants and, in the case of Basildon and Enfield,
mounted 24-hour pickets. They protested at Ford showrooms and prepared
to picket Ford plants. Mass action, backed up by solidarity from other
sections of the working class, brought the mighty Ford Motor Company to
its knees. As Frank Jepson says: "Our victory shows that if you’re
determined to make a stand you can beat the big companies. Six hundred
workers beat Ford and Visteon. That’s massive, a real David and
Goliath".
As with the Lindsey oil refinery strikes earlier in
the year, the initiative came from the workers themselves, not the trade
union officials. At the beginning, many of the workers expressed the
view that the British working class is too slow to move, accepting
attacks without fighting back. ‘We should be like the French’, they
would say.
In a context in which thousands of jobs are
disappearing every day, apparently without a fight, it is understandable
that workers may think there is some kind of British disease that
prevents the working class from fighting. The reality is that workers in
Britain have faced decades of neo-liberal attacks. Rather than ‘take it
lying down’, they fought tremendous battles against the brutal policies
of wage restraint, job cuts, privatisation, the decimation of
manufacturing, anti-trade union legislation and so on through the 1970s
and 1980s. But increasingly through the 1980s and 1990s, trade union
leaders moved to the right, preferring to manage defeat rather than lead
a fight. Anti-trade union legislation also held back struggle, partly in
the minds of workers themselves, but mainly because it has been used by
the leadership as a reason not to engage in struggle.
This is particularly so in the global car industry,
which faced over-production and over-capacity even before this current
economic crisis. Mergers, takeovers and outsourcing have been met by
union leaders with strategies such as ‘concession bargaining’, accepting
cuts in wages and worsening conditions as the price of saving jobs.
Visteon shows, however, that no amount of concessions will save a
factory if the bosses are determined to close it. Visteon workers had
been told by their national officials to accept a three-tier workforce,
a move from three to two shifts (losing shift money) and other
‘efficiencies’ to save plants that the bosses had already planned to
close.
If it were down to the determination of the workers
themselves, any idea that British workers take it lying down would
simply not exist. But, with a few exceptions, like the PCS civil service
union and RMT rail and transport union, the actions of the union leaders
over years have undermined workers’ confidence to fight, or that they
would be supported by their union. Through their actions, the Visteon
workers have adopted the militancy of French workers. This lesson will
be learned by others who face similar attacks.
Management double dealing
VISTEON WAS SPUN off by Ford in 2000. The workers
were promised Ford ‘mirrored’ terms and conditions, and a job for life.
Throughout their time working for Visteon their ID cards still said
Ford. Many of the men and women had worked for Ford and then Visteon for
25 years and longer. While at Visteon they had received Ford 30 years’
service commemorative vases. But when they were cast out with nothing,
Ford bosses claimed that they had no obligation to them! Visteon, they
said, was an entirely independent company.
This is typical of the methods used by major
companies to shift around profits and avoid obligations. Visteon bosses
pretended to the workforce that they were doing all they could to make
the plants viable. The reality is that they were never intended to be.
It was a device to slash costs at the expense of the workforce. As Ford
components plants, these factories had been profitable. Suddenly, as
Visteon, they were not, despite improvements in productivity, as the
prices paid by Ford for the components were deliberately low. Profits
from Visteon UK were hived-off to other parts of Visteon Corporation,
such as the Visteon Customer Technology Centre up the road from the
Basildon plant. An allegedly independent company, it was another way of
siphoning off profits to make it look like Visteon UK was making a loss.
As the workers themselves commented, this was akin to money laundering,
except it was all legal.
Attacks on workers’ pay and conditions followed,
with two- and then three-tier contracts for new workers. They demanded
that the ex-Ford workers break their mirrored contracts. They planned to
shut down in higher-paid countries and outsource the work to low-cost
Eastern Europe. During this dispute, the workers found evidence that the
management had discussed closure and outsourcing as early as 2006. Yet,
up to the last minute, the bosses were still demanding concessions from
them.
In Swansea, four years ago, a new shop stewards
committee was elected, with Socialist Party member Rob Williams as
convener, to fight the relentless attacks on pay and conditions. In
2008, after balloting for strike action, Visteon workers won a 5% pay
rise, which also applied to those employed immediately after Visteon was
spun off from Ford. Successful resistance to attempts to remove Ford
contracts and the lack of any comparable alternative employment in West
Belfast, when combined with decisive local leadership, gave the Belfast
workers the confidence to resist in March.
The developing strategy
A PRIMARY CONCERN of the workers was to control the
plants, to prevent them being reopened by another company, or machinery
and components being removed. While the workers were in occupation, they
controlled the plants. In Belfast, this continued throughout. Police,
security and the administrators were driven away and the workers secured
the building. This was the strongest basis from which to conduct the
fight. As well as giving the workers control over the assets and plant,
it also enabled high levels of organisation, with daily mass meetings
and shop stewards committee meetings three times a day.
In Enfield, the workers occupied for ten days until
driven out by court rulings. In Basildon, the occupation ended early
under pressure from the police. Round-the-clock pickets were then
mounted to prevent anything moving. Particularly important in Basildon,
once the workers were on the gates, were actions to keep everybody
together and boost morale. They held a protest at the Visteon Customer
Technology Centre, a family day, a demonstration through Basildon and
another day of action in Basildon town centre.
The workers also realised the importance of building
support among the local community. Posters went up. They leafleted and
collected money at local workplaces, stations and supermarkets. Workers
at the tractor plant in Basildon, for example, recognised that they
could be next, and collected hundreds of pounds in support.
Visteon workers wanted to pressure Ford to intervene
to stop the sackings. Successful protests were organised at Ford
showrooms, some of which were shut down for the duration of the protest.
Most importantly, they appealed to Ford workers to support them.
Socialist Party members from the start emphasised that winning
solidarity from Ford workers would be crucial to forcing Ford to act.
The Visteon battle coincided with the 25th
anniversary of the miners’ strike, and some of the lessons of that
historic strike were discussed on the picket lines. One of the main
lessons was the importance of solidarity. References were made to the
mass pickets of mines that were still working in order to bring them
out.
Visteon workers understandably thought Ford workers
– some of whom had worked at Visteon – should walk out in support. Of
course, had that happened on a large scale it would have been superb.
However, we did not agree with the demand in leaflets of other
organisations that any individual Ford worker who wanted to support
Visteon workers should walk out. In the current climate of massive job
losses, following years in which the leadership had failed to fight job
cuts and short-time working at Ford itself, to expect Ford workers to
suddenly take illegal action in support of Visteon workers was a big
ask. The working class cannot just be turned on and off like a tap.
How to win that solidarity was the key issue. We put
forward the strategy of calling for the blacking of Visteon parts. If
any worker was victimised for doing so, the Unite union should call them
out on strike. This would make mass action by Ford workers more
realisable.
The Unite leadership invited Visteon conveners to a
national meeting with Ford conveners. While that meeting agreed a
resolution to support Visteon workers, exactly how this was to be done
was not addressed. Later, after a derisory offer from Visteon was
rejected and Ford bosses still denied any obligation, the national Unite
leadership organised a meeting of conveners and officials, out of which
came the plan to picket Ford’s Bridgend plant in Wales.
Yet, as with the miners’ strike, which others
referred to romantically without carefully drawing the full lessons, we
realised that simply turning up and picketing may not be enough. In
discussions, it was raised that the workers should approach Ford
conveners to ask for meetings with stewards and members, to explain the
case so that Ford workers understood what was at stake and why they were
being asked to take action. We also argued that the Unite leadership
should take the lead, going to Ford plants and assuring the workers of
their full support.
It was the threat of picketing Ford Bridgend that
brought Ford management to the table. The leaders of all three plants
agreed with the approach of preparing the ground and met the convener
and stewards at Bridgend. Frank explains: "We wanted to get the Ford
conveners on board to open the door to meetings with the stewards and
workers. The pickets were our trump card. We didn’t want to do it
without getting full support of the Bridgend workers. Kevin Nolan and I
went to meet the Bridgend convener and senior stewards to lay the
groundwork and to plan it. That was absolutely the right thing to do. It
was very productive; the stewards were definitely on board".
The importance of leadership
UNITE OFFICIALS VISITED the plants in the first
couple of days and assured the workers of their full support. However,
on a day-to-day basis, the workers felt that the union did not give the
support they expected. Many at Basildon and Enfield felt that the
practical assistance and advice that should have been provided by the
union were actually provided by socialist supporters. One of the reasons
for the level of support for Rob Williams, sacked convener of the
ex-Visteon plant at Swansea, is the role he has played in Visteon and in
the car industry in general. In the vacuum of leadership, Rob has
offered not just general support but specific guidance to workers
fighting attacks, illustrating the role that even just one Socialist
Party member can play, not only in one workplace, but across an
industry. The national officials, hiding behind anti-trade union
legislation, were not prepared to come out and lead action. But the
Visteon convenors and key shop stewards were able to lead the way.
In periods of frustration, some of the Visteon
workers asked, ‘Why do we stay in the union?’ Some expressed the idea of
setting up their own union. Other workers, unfamiliar with what a
militant union could be like, and unable at this stage to see how a
fight to transform the unions could take place, blamed the government
rather than the union leadership for their situation. The Visteon
struggle has shown that pressure from below can force union leaders to
fight. In the face of such brutality by the employer, basic class anger
was stirred in this battle. A massacre of jobs is taking place, and
union leaders cannot be seen to be completely impotent in the face of
this onslaught if they are to maintain their positions at the tops of
the unions.
A revolt is brewing in the trade unions and
workplaces. Stewards who are unwilling to fight will be pushed aside by
a newer, younger generation. Visteon is an expression of this. The
conveners of both Basildon and Enfield were new and inexperienced but
were prepared to struggle and learn as they did so.
Saving jobs
WHAT THE VISTEON workers have won is a tremendous
achievement. The issue of the pensions is still unresolved, to be taken
up by a pensions lawyer. And, as the workers well know, the jobs have
been lost. In this recession, it will be very difficult for them to find
work on similar pay and conditions. The loss of jobs potentially brings
with it the loss of homes, cars and lifestyles, and the loss of the
collective organisation and camaraderie of the workplace. There is also
the loss of the skills of the workforce, which society needs, now thrown
on the scrapheap.
The workers at Belfast fought to keep the plant
open. But, at this stage, the overall majority of the workers at the
three plants did not feel able to fight on to save the jobs. Many,
particularly at Belfast, thought their plants were viable. But they were
relatively small workplaces and the struggle for jobs is at an early
stage. The workers also did not clearly see how the jobs could be saved.
The Socialist Party demanded that Ford should take
the plants back but, if they were not prepared to do so, that the
government should take them over. Workers were sympathetic to this idea
but did not see it as achievable. However, this battle is at the start
of a process. Examples of similar battles, while well-known (Lindsey,
Waterford Crystal, Prisme), are few at the moment. But the Visteon
dispute is now a factor in encouraging other workers to struggle. Corus
workers in Redcar, facing the closure of their factory with the loss of
2,000 jobs, are looking at Visteon for inspiration. At a later stage, as
the spectre of mass unemployment hits home, further and more widespread
battles could take place. In the context of more heightened struggle,
the demand to nationalise companies will be seen to be more achievable
and will be taken up by workers more widely.
The demand to nationalise the factories under
democratic workers’ control and management, especially in industries
like the car industry, will need to be linked to a programme to switch
to alternative production. The valuable skills of those workers are not
limited to making cars. As part of a plan of production they could be
switched to other products that society needs. Workers at Enfield, for
example, raised the idea that their factory, with plastic moulding
equipment used to make dashboards, could be retooled to make wheelie
bins.
A few months ago, the majority of Visteon workers
would never have imagined that they would occupy or picket their
factories. They did not see themselves as militants and readily admit
that they had ignored demonstrations and pickets. Conditions forced them
to fight.
They now say they will never walk past a picket
again. Several of the workers want to continue to offer solidarity to
other workers in struggle, and to take part in the newly-formed united
left in Unite to play a part in fighting to transform the union. The
workers are angry that the Labour government has maintained the Tory
anti-trade union laws, and blame Labour for the ease with which workers
in Britain can be sacked, demanding changes in employment law.
For the majority, this has also led them to conclude
that New Labour is no different from the Tories. Many think that Unite
should stop funding New Labour and agree with the idea that they should
use that money to campaign for a new workers’ party. When others have
argued that workers should join New Labour to try to change it, many
rightly respond that it is too late for that. There has been a good deal
of interest in the No2EU-Yes to Democracy initiative, with the conveners
at Basildon and Enfield standing as No2EU candidates in the euro
elections.
The vicious actions of the Visteon bosses turned
these workers’ lives upside down. As a consequence, their ideas have
changed dramatically as well. But the Visteon bosses are no different
from their counterparts throughout Britain. And the Visteon workers are
not either.
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