Cowley Mini-Plant job losses: is NL's 'Flexible Labour Market' unravelling?

[treelover]

The media is reporting on the news that 850 Mini workers at the BMW Mini plant in Cowley are to be made redundant: they were only given 1 hours notice, with apparently no redundancy money, and are pretty angry , with reports of workers throwing fruit at managers at the meeting! However, Sky News also has a video of workers at the plant barracking Unite officials for not doing enough.(see below) What is seems to be is Blairs and Browns, 'flexible labour market' now being shown for the crock of shite it is, core workers are being at least nominally protected while all the temp workers are being discarded with no redundancy pay, etc,

Where the unions right to accept the FLM/core and periphery model?, does the unprecented anger here and at Lyndsey indicate a new less union controlled form of industrial worker militancy?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Bu...s_In_Cowley,_Near_Oxford_As_Part_Of_Recession

 

[nightbreed]

The media is reporting on the news that 850 Mini workers at the BMW Mini plant in Cowley are to be made redundant, they were only given 1 hours notice, with apparently no redundacy money, and are pretty angry , with reports of workers throwing fruit at managers at the meeting! However, Sky News also has a video of workers at the plant barracking Unite officials for not doing enough.(see below) What is seem to be is the Blairs and Browns, 'flexible labour market' is now being shown for the crock of shite it is, core workers are being at least nominally protected while all the temp workers are being discarded with no redundancy pay, etc,

Where the unions right to accept the FLM/core and periphery model?, does the unprecented anger here and at Lyndsey indicate a new less union controlled form of industrial worker militancy?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Bu...s_In_Cowley,_Near_Oxford_As_Part_Of_Recession

Agency workers have nil rights compared to permanents. They can be sacked at 1 minutes notice let alone 1 hour. Unfortunately the union stewards have taken the shit here but then they are an easy target. The managers should have got the brunt of this not the union.
Occupy the factory in protest thats what I say.
Isnt there a law that says that if you have been employed as an agency worker for four years you should be given a full time contract?

 

[audiotech]

The stewards are acting like the bosses messenger boys here. The union representatives should be giving a lead in the fight against these sackings, as the core workforce will be next in line.

 

[elbows]

The horrors that hide behind the word flexible were felt during the good times too, so I dont know if there will be many who are genuinely shocked at the harsh realities just because we are now in a recession. The realities were already known, its just more people will be on the receiving end now, a longer stick and a shrunken carrot will not a happy working population make.

 

[elbows]

Or to put it another way, people lived with job insecurity because it was relatively easy for many to find another insecure job to move to. Now that is drying up the flexibles will suddenly become rigidly unemployed.

 

[elbows]

Smell the flexibility, 9000 new KFC jobs to keep the workers happy and glad.

 

[Spion]

The stewards are acting like the bosses messenger boys here.

This

The workforce should occupy. Cut the hours not the jobs with no loss of pay.

 

[nightbreed]

The SWP have posted this with no comment.

The Agency workers have literally no rights. What else could the union have done or said?

 

[shagnasty]

Nu labour have opposed any rights for agency staff etc.but as said it will be the core staff who will be the next to feel the pain.but treelover is right the lie as began to unravel

 

[Spion]

does the unprecented anger here and at Lyndsey indicate a new less union controlled form of industrial worker militancy?

Quite possibly, and I hope so. While times were good militancy hit an all time low and the union bureaucracy got its feet well under the bosses' table. Now all that's starting to unravel we could be in for interesting times.

 

[DarthSydodyas]

We had all of our temps removed over a few phases, none of which any of us were informed about. It begins with rumours, and the next thing you know is your team member, whom you've worked well with for over a year is taken away in an instance. I mean, they give you NO notice and you are taken into an office instantly and that's it. I know a fair number of our temps were working outside of their 1 year contracts.

There is nothing the Unions can do in this case and ime I would be more pissed and general relations between permanent staff and temps than the [apparent] lack of Union support. Shows just how much solidarity there really is.

 

[Zachor]

The stewards are acting like the bosses messenger boys here. The union representatives should be giving a lead in the fight against these sackings, as the core workforce will be next in line.

I think that although the ultimate target of the legitimate anger of the temps should the companies management they were right to have a go at Union timeservers and hacks who seem to have more time for management than their own members.

Agree that the core workers will be next. That is how it was with my workplace, good temps who covered key work areas were let go and then the management started on the perm people.

 

[Nigel]

The SWP have posted this with no comment.

The Agency workers have literally no rights. What else could the union have done or said?

Thats pertty good.

Should be a meeting in Cowley/Blackbird Leys in about a weeks time for National Shop Stewards Network in about a weeks time.
There will be a stall outside Manpower on Wednesday, about midday

 

[Nigel]

We had all of our temps removed over a few phases, none of which any of us were informed about. It begins with rumours, and the next thing you know is your team member, whom you've worked well with for over a year is taken away in an instance. I mean, they give you NO notice and you are taken into an office instantly and that's it. I know a fair number of our temps were working outside of their 1 year contracts.

There is nothing the Unions can do in this case and ime I would be more pissed and general relations between permanent staff and temps than the [apparent] lack of Union support. Shows just how much solidarity there really is.

They could get a backbone and stand up to management.

The way temps have been treated(I worked there for about six months) is disgraceful, with working conditions and pay differing between agency staff working for RIGHT FOR STAFF and MANPOWER differing, and some bonus scheme which basically just takes money out of your wages and holds it in lieu. Manipulating workers with 'carrot on stick' to do extra work, knowing they would'nt get a contract etc etc etc, all under the noses of Trade Union Officials.

 

[durruti02]

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17123

some questions

why were the agency attacking the union, for giving the agency notice??

what do the agency expect? agency are always on short termnotice surely

were the union complicit in KEEPING high levels of agency?

(ime we/union have always fought against having agency staff except to cover .. though i have to admit it is usually an issue we lose as management love having agency)

it sounds as if all the agency here are in union .. is this right? as again ime most agency do not join unions but maybe in car plants this is differrent

did the union actually negotiate this deal? but again what union negotiates losing full time workers as opp to agency ..

so what should they have done differrent? call action to oppose all redundancies?

 

[Nigel]

So what should they have done differrent? call action to oppose all redundancies?

That would have been a good start

 

[audiotech]

Video of management sacking agency workers at BMW Cowley

'Management tell the workers of shift C "yellow" Mini production at BMW's Cowley plant that they are sacked at the end of a night shift on the morning of 16 February 2009. This video immediately precedes the one circulating yesterday.'

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17134

Management announcing the sackings (seems the main manager bottled it and sent a note of thanks instead). They also announce deductions from any wages owed if overalls not returned (£25).

The union stewards stand on the sidelines and say nothing until challenged. Then reacting to the challenge a steward demands the workers listen to him. He should be listening to the members who've just been sacked ffs.

The attitude appears to be 'oh well, they're only agency workers'. The idea from the union I would assume is to protect the short term sectional interests of the core workers?

So much for UNITE.

 

[e19896]

'Management tell the workers of shift C "yellow" Mini production at BMW's Cowley plant that they are sacked at the end of a night shift on the morning of 16 February 2009. This video immediately precedes the one circulating yesterday.'

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17134

Management announcing the sackings (seems the main manager bottled it and sent a note of thanks instead). They also announce deductions from any wages owed if overalls not returned (£25).

The union stewards stand on the sidelines and say nothing until challenged. Then reacting to the challenge a steward demands the workers listen to him. He should be listening to the members who've just been sacked ffs.

The attitude appears to be 'oh well, they're only agency workers'. The idea from the union I would assume is to protect the short term sectional interests of the core workers?

So much for UNITE.

So much for any union there for the boses not the workers, what a fucking disgrace The Left and The Petty Bourgeois Anarchist are, all our class are left with is the scum of The Far Right, we should never trust The Middle Class there fight is not in the intrest of our class and when the workers walked out in wildcat strikes, it was not a victory for The Working Class, but a compermise, true victory is the smashing of capitlism and the very system that keeps us as working class, until that day we should never rest..

Here gather the ghosts of ‘liberty’, ‘equality’ and ‘justice’; those immortal phantoms which haunt whomsoever would betray kith, kin or society just to line their own pockets. Here is the icy breath of fate that the rich feel on the back of their bloated necks - a constant reminder that the great Levelling was not defeated, merely postponed.

The Levellers​

 

[Nigel]

DEMOSTRATION OUTSIDE GATE 1
MONDAY 6.00a.m sharp

 

[DarthSydodyas]

I was told about another plant where the workers were offered voluntary redundancy. The management met its target figures but then sent out targeted warnings to individuals they felt should have taken that offer and were of no more use to the company. The warning was to highlight that they would receive potentially £10k < on their retirement if they were to be made forcefully redundant as opposed to voluntary. I'd expect it to be aimed towards the older part of the workforce, fondly referred to as dinosaurs in our place.

A lot of plants seem to work on the last in, first out principle. If this is violated (as suggested above), would this not be grounds for appeal (I mean genuine appeal, not the shit the temps go through)?

 

[Nigel]

DEMOSTRATION OUTSIDE GATE 1
MONDAY 6.00a.m sharp

This did'nt turn out too well in the end
About 50 Oxford university students, students from Southampton, Goldsmiths and a few others, few car workers from Swindon & Southampton + about nine/ten different Trotskyist Groups and Trade Council who refused to criticise stewards.

 

[jusali]

Apathy in the UK!
No change there then...........

 

[Fruitloop]

So let me make sure I've got this right, the studenty types turned up but the workers in question generally stayed away?

 

[dennisr]

Apathy in the UK!
No change there then...........

Maybe the workers involved directly recognise the difficulties they face. Maybe they this this 'battle' as futile or unlikely to get results. Does not mean for one minute they have not already learnt a huge lesson for the future or that they are 'apathetic'.

We cannot win wars with fantasy armies. it is nice to see that a layer of students were willing to turn out though - bodes well for future joint action (when the balance of probabilites is a bit more on the side of those involved)

 

[dennisr]

So much for any union there for the boses not the workers, what a fucking disgrace The Left and The Petty Bourgeois Anarchist are, all our class are left with is the scum of The Far Right, we should never trust The Middle Class there fight is not in the intrest of our class and when the workers walked out in wildcat strikes, it was not a victory for The Working Class, but a compermise, true victory is the smashing of capitlism and the very system that keeps us as working class, until that day we should never rest..

what ever - I would take a cold shower mate - you will physically explode with all that ranty anger before any real battles can be fought otherwise

 

[Nigel]

Carrot On A Stick.

Maybe the workers involved directly recognise the difficulties they face. Maybe they this this 'battle' as futile or unlikely to get results. Does not mean for one minute they have not already learnt a huge lesson for the future or that they are 'apathetic'.

We cannot win wars with fantasy armies. it is nice to see that a layer of students were willing to turn out though - bodes well for future joint action (when the balance of probabilites is a bit more on the side of those involved)

This is not over.
Many workers inside the plant are fearful of losing their jobs, there was some talk of 500 people losing their jobs out of 600 workers.

Afraid even under the auspices of mad Trottery this was a comical facade, attitude from workers seemed as though they were sickened by watching a bunch of predominantely upper middle class students having their pictures taken by amateurish home made banners for their 'lefty' C.V.'s, and Oxford Trades Councils position of not in the slightist way being critical of Reps and Stewards, especially the infamously disliked Bob Moss.

At public meeting organised by Trades Council a couple of days afterwards not much joy and usual dogmatic mantras: TUC organise General Strike, demands for occupation, by people who probably find it a challenge to wipe their arses, mass demonstrations in London; 80-90 miles away from the car plant that will only end up with a few hundred people turning up. All said through the many heroic defeats many of us have seen through the last 25 odd years or so.

 

[dennisr]

this was a comical facade

its called the 'crisis of leadership'

 

[Nigel]

its called the 'crisis of leadership'

Thats one word for it, I can think of a few other

 

[Nigel]

Cowley Worker Calls On Unite For Enquiry: Interesting New Development!!

"Unite, the BMW workers’ union, was last night under pressure to launch an investigation into officials’ handling of the mass redundancies at Cowley.

Former worker Stacey Rizzo, who was one of 850 temporary agency staff laid off in February, is also calling for the union’s regional leaders to hold a vote of no confidence to test the backing for Unite’s representatives at the plant.

Mrs Rizzo, 22, claims some workers were moved from temporary contracts to permanent ones just days after the redundancies were made and is unhappy at the selection process for it."


http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/search/4272071.Call_for_BMW_union_inqury/
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/search/4130941.BMW__A_lookback_at_tension_on_the_frontline/