Factory Occupations: Ford Visteon — A Fight for the Whole Movement

Submitted by martin on 7 April, 2009 - 11:03 Author: Vicki Morris
Enfield

“We done what we had to do, we have a message for big multinational corporations: you can’t get away with it no more. You should treat ordinary people with respect. And it’s not us that should be treated as criminals but people like Mandelson.”

Kevin Nolan, Unite convenor from the occupied Visteon car parts factory in Enfield, was speaking outside the High Court on Monday 6 April. He and the deputy convenor, Piers Hood, had gone to the court in the morning facing imprisonment for defying an eviction notice brought on behalf of Visteon against the workers occupying their former workplace in north London. Visteon employees are also in occupation at another factory in Belfast, and employees in Basildon are picketing their former workplace.

The Belfast workers went into occupation on 31 March on hearing that they were to be made redundant when the Visteon UK company went into receivership, entailing the loss of 565 jobs in all. Visteon workers in Enfield and Basildon were told to return in the morning or over the next week to collect their tools. Instead they went away, discussed and resolved to return in the morning to emulate their Belfast workmates.

On Wednesday 1 April some of the Enfield workers succeeded in getting inside the factory and secured part of it for the occupation. They have control of the paintshop and roof.

There are about 100 workers in occupation in Enfield. Workers who are not occupying visit the factory constantly, along with family members. As the days have passed a steady stream of visitors has arrived, along with messages of support from across the UK, and money raised at union meetings.

On Saturday 4 April there was a rally at the factory. Rightly, the occupations have become a focus for the local labour movement, and they need to be a focus for the whole British labour movement.

an inspiring example

Visteon is not the first group of workers to go into occupation in the UK since the recession began. The campaign by Visteon workers, however, has the potential to be an example that galvanises the whole labour movement to resist job losses.

Visteon UK, an injection moulding company making car parts — mostly dashboards — for Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover, was an integral part of the Ford company until 2000 when it was spun off. Visteon UK has gone into liquidation, but it is not clear that it is actually bankrupt. By going into bankruptcy, the company hopes to avoid meeting guarantees made to workers when the company was spun off: that their terms and conditions would mirror those of Ford employees.

In the first place, the Visteon workers are fighting for a better redundancy package than the statutory minimum they are currently being offered. But many of them also hope that a deal can be reached whereby they will be offered work in another part of Ford. At the 4 April meeting Unite London region organiser Steve Hart told the meeting that they were fighting for jobs, not just better redundancy terms.

Visteon has plants in other parts of the world. Some of the workers think that the work they have been doing will move to a large plant in Turkey.

What the Visteon workers can win depends on many factors. The most important is what support they can get from elsewhere in Ford and from their union, Unite. They are visiting Ford factories in the UK and arguing for Ford workers to boycott Visteon parts. Their union Unite should be arguing strongly for this and facilitating visits. It is not clear to what extent this is happening. So far the union has not repudiated the occupations, although they are clearly illegal; they have supported the occupations with words and financial and legal assistance, but how far they are willing to go will be tested quickly.

Clearly, the occupation cannot be sustained indefinitely. The Unite region has done a lot of work to make life liveable inside the factory, with food, bedding, etc.. But this can only go on so long: workers could become demoralised without results.

Several things need to happen:

Support from the rest of the labour movement must be overwhelming — Visteon workers are not just fighting for themselves. Many workers feel they are fighting for dignity and respect. They want to inspire emulation: they want job losses to be fought by other groups of workers.

This relatively small group of workers cannot be expected to bear the whole weight of the fightback on their own shoulders.

The occupation must be publicised widely so that it becomes an inspiring example: the Visteon workers will not become isolated if other groups of workers are going into occupation. News that schools and nurseries in Glasgow threatened with closure have been occupied by parents suggests that the tactic can take off elsewhere, but people have to hear that news.

Workers in Ford, former co-workers of Visteon workers, should be lobbied and encouraged to help their fight with donations and by boycotting Visteon products.

International links should be cultivated where they can be; the workforce at Visteon Enfield is very mixed in their backgrounds (and ages and gender — there are many women among the workers, and some in the occupation). Links should be made where they can be with other workforces in the supply chain, ideally in Turkey.

A deal struck between Visteon and Unite in the High Court on Monday placed a deadline for ending the occupation on Thursday 9 April. It was the price the union agreed to pay in order to keep Nolan and Hood out of prison! It is clear that jailing would have provoked a huge reaction from many workers — the company decided that discretion is the better part of valour. Kevin and Piers are banned from going inside the factory again; if they do, they face immediate imprisonment, but they are in touch with the occupation. The deal also includes Kevin flying to the US with other Unite representatives, including joint general secretary Derek Simpson, on Wednesday 8 April to a meeting with the Visteon corporation.

To judge by the mood of the workers attending a support meeting in Haringey on Monday night they seem satisfied with the deal struck at the High Court. But on Thursday, if they get bad news back from the US — that the Visteon corporation will not meet their demands they will have to decide whether to fight on. It is vital that this brief hiatus is used to keep building for a sustained fight, a fight that is spread to other workers.

What you can do to build support

•Publicise lessons from the occupations:

• Use the occupations to show that workers can and must resist redundancies — at the very least, workers must fight for the most favourable redundancy terms possible.

• Use the occupations to argue that factories should not simply close when companies are in financial difficulty: workers should be able to see the company accounts and make suggestions of how production can be reorganised to keep the company viable. Industries that are laying off workers should be nationalised under workers’ control. Redundancy is not the obvious solution to financial difficulty: workers need jobs, and all enterprises can be adapted to create goods that people need. At Visteon, the machinery can be used to create parts for many more uses than cars. The workers themselves know and say that.

• For Enfield, email messages of support to visteonoccupation@gmail.com. Take collections to support the occupations (collection sheet here); send cheques payable to “HSG” c/o Haringey Support Group, PO Box 2474, London N8. Include a note saying what it is for. For Belfast, email messages to dmcmurray@unitetheunion.com.

• Visit the factories in Belfast, Enfield and Basildon at any time, but particularly when rallies are called. There are already bailiffs on the site in Enfield.

Comments

Submitted by vickim on Fri, 10/04/2009 - 11:57

[img_assist|nid=12287|title=Visteon|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=95]

Visteon Enfield workers voted to leave their week-long occupation today, Thursday 9 April, on advice from their union (Unite had done a deal earlier in the week that kept the convenor Kevin Nolan and deputy convenor Piers Hood out of prison, in return for agreeing that the occupation would end at noon on Thursday). Some in the occupation wanted to stay, but abided by the majority decision. All the workers were applauded as they left the factory by about 300 supporters who had gathered for a rally. The union is due to have talks with Visteon management who are coming over from the US for a meeting on Tuesday. The Enfield Visteon Unite convenor Kevin Nolan will be in those talks.

The workers don't feel that they have lost, but are regrouping - time will tell. They didn't want the violence that might have ensued from defying the order to leave the factory. They have decided to mount a permanent picket of the factory to stop the management moving out machinery - or opening up again with a new workforce. Both of these are rumoured as possibilities.

A support group has been established to continue and to better organise the considerable solidarity that has already been shown. Website address is www.visteonoccupation.org - the site is hosted by lib.com. Activities that the group is likely to carry out are: continuing to organise trips by Visteon workers to other Ford plants to press for boycotting of Visteon products, leafleting Ford dealerships, and deepening contcts with Unite activists, all in consultation with the Visteon workers themselves.

Belfast Visteon workers are still in occupation.

The Visteon workers at Enfield still need messages of support: visteonoccupation@gmail.com and donations; a rally has been called at the plant for this Saturday 11 April, from 11am, Morson Road, EN3 4TN. Nearest railway station: Ponders End.

A few pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/11722019@N03/sets/72157616553311874/

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