Thanks to sacrifices and commitment from Unite motor manufacturing members the industry is on the up. But where’s the government support?


Not all is doom, gloom and slump in the world of manufacturing. While many companies struggle with the ‘double-dip’ recession, much of the UK motor industry is… well… motoring. The automotive sector is producing nearly 10 per cent more cars than last year.


The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) works at Solihull is a case in point. It’s a business that was battling for survival three years ago. But – with vital help from Unite – it has pulled itself up by its bootstraps, and in May reported record sales and a 35 per cent increase in pre-tax profits. A story worth telling – it’s an example to other manufacturers.


“This plant used to live in the past,” says Solihull convenor Bob Nason. “When Ford and BMW owned it, we were told by management we were a poor quality workforce delivering a low quality performance. If you get told that often enough, you begin to believe it.”


In 2008 Indian conglomerate Tata bought the business from Ford. But before the sale went through, Bob and his union colleagues were invited to offer an opinion on the potential buyers. “Something told us Tata was in it for the right reasons. Since then they have proved their worth,” he says.


Soon after the takeover the recession gripped and the market for luxury cars slumped. The Labour government intervened to keep the industry going. Ministers unlocked £2.3bn of support through loan guarantees and allocated £400m to support the shift towards low carbon transport.


A £300m ‘scrappage scheme’ offering new car buyers a £2,000 discount to scrap a car more than 10 years old, was jointly financed by carmakers and the government. The package helped the sector negotiate the worst of the downturn.


At JLR there was also vital input from Unite. The union drew up a plan which


meant considerable sacrifices from the workforce, but which served to protect 1,100 jobs.


Under the ‘framework agreement’ hourly paid workers and salaried staff made major concessions on both pay and working time. “It was the start of shopfloor support for Tata and in return Tata has supported us. It has benefitted both sides,” says Bob.


That picture is pretty rosy at the moment with the British market holding up despite the recession. About 70 per cent of vehicles go abroad and sales have since risen considerably in India, Russia and China.


The Chinese market in particular has taken off, despite huge taxes on imported vehicles. Amazingly, the most luxurious Range Rover can cost as much as £220,000 in China, but hundreds of them are sold every month.


The plant is a victim of its own success to an extent because component suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand.


Apprentices American-owned axle manufacturer Dana, which sells around 70 per cent of its product to JLR, is working flat out. Yet Unite Dana convenor Peter Russell says it’s effectively on a ‘life support machine’ because of a lack of capital investment. The company has taken on no apprentices for five years and is currently suffering from a massive skills shortage.


But JLR is attempting to tackle that problem. Recently the company took on 94 apprentices in mechanical and electrical engineering. Tellingly there were more than 3,100 applications – a sign of the quality of the apprenticeships, but also of the failure of manufacturing industry elsewhere in the region to offer young people rigorous training.


Tata’s investment – which includes a 13 uniteWORKS July/August 2012


massive expansion of capacity at JLR’s works on Merseyside and the proposed construction of new plant at Wolverhampton – would not have been possible without the input of Unite and the sacrifices of the workforce.


Concessions by Vauxhall workers were also critical to General Motors’ decision to build the new Astra at the Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside.


Most Vauxhall workers voted in favour of a new four-year pay and conditions deal enabling the plant to work around the clock for 51 weeks of the year if necessary.


Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, said there was now a potential for a future at the plant until 2020 and beyond. It means 700 new skilled jobs at Ellesmere Port and possibly hundreds more in the supply chain.


But he conceded the company’s decision had implications for colleagues elsewhere in General Motors, which Unite would continue to discuss.


Elsewhere there have been encouraging signs of high demand for vehicles, but in some cases far less co-operation with Unite.


Production at Honda’s Swindon plant has been boosted by increasing world- wide sales, but Honda seems determined to squeeze more work out of the existing workforce rather than create new jobs.


Convenor Paddy Brennan, who was suspended by the company last year because of his fight against union derecognition, said the workforce had voted against a four per cent pay offer tied to an increase in the basic working week from 37 hours to 42. “We are not robots, we are human beings and we need to maintain a sensible work-life balance,” he said.


At BMW, £500m of investment has


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