[10
NOV 00] ROLLS-ROYCE NEWS
Workers To Fight Rolls-Royce Jobs Cuts
BY
ANTONY
HOPKER
Workers
at Rolls-Royce’s Ansty plant in Coventry are to have a mass meeting
on Monday to voice their opposition to plans to cut up to 1,300 jobs.
They
are to be balloted on taking action against the decision to shift 600
jobs from the energy section to Canada and 50 jobs in the marine
department to Bristol.
Although
strike action has been ruled out at this stage, representatives of the
MSF union have pledged to take their fight around the world.
And
they threatened that industrial action would be taken if there were
any compulsory redundancies.
A
statement released in response to yesterday’s news said:
“We
are extremely disappointed that Rolls-Royce has decided to react to
short-term business difficulties in this way.
“It
is our belief that the proposed approach will cause significant
long-term damage to the prospects of the business and we intend to
oppose it with every means at our disposal.
“We
believe that Rolls-Royce will suffer irreparable damage from the
loss of a skilled and committed workforce and the discontinuation of
Energy business activities at the Ansty site.”
Negotiators
are putting together a counter-proposal to outline the viability of
keeping the energy business at Ansty.
The
representatives said:
"We
fail to recognise the long-term strategy that necessitates the
re-location of jobs from within the UK to Canada. It is our
intention to solicit support for alternatives, which seek to protect
jobs and the valuable resources we have at Ansty, at every
opportunity.
“We
will be working together with other trade unions, community groups,
local and national government in order to achieve this.”
One
immediate demand has been to stop using sub-contracted labour at
Ansty, as this is believed to under-mining permanent positions.
“We
intend to refuse co-operation with any transfer of our work and have
secured international trade union support for this action.
The
MSF group at Ansty is well organised and supported. Our membership
is made up of highly qualified and experienced technical staff. We
are capable of resisting these proposals and intend to fight all
attempts to unreasonably reduce the Energy businesses workforce at
Ansty.”
Coventry
Socialist group leader Cllr Dave Nellist called on people in the city
to back the Rolls-Royce workers.
He
said:
“Clearly
this butchery cannot be allowed to happen. A fightback must be
launched. Job losses of this scale will have a serious effect on
Coventry, coming within days of announcements of 140 jobs to go at
Nova Fabrications, 40 at Coventry Contract Services and 25 at Godiva
Windows.
“Not
only could a total of 1,500 direct jobs be lost, but the effect will
be felt further down the chain from component suppliers to local
shops. The opportunity for young people leaving school to go into
apprenticeships will be reduced. “
“Whilst
the nature of the fightback will be decided by the workers in the
plant, other trades unionists and the wider community in our city
must not leave it to Rolls Royce workers alone to defend these jobs.
We must stand together.”
SEE:[09
NOV 00] ROLLS-ROYCE TO CUT
1,300 COVENTRY JOBS
|
