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18
May 2009
In 2000 Ford hived off
part of its operation to Visteon and in 2009 they nearly got
away with writing off its former employees with nothing other
than the statutory minimum redundancy over the 9 years of
Visteon’s life. This was in spite of promises in 2000 that
Ford terms, including Ford’s generous redundancy packages
secured by union struggle, would apply to Visteon employees.
They could get away with
this because of the separate legal entity of limited companies.
For an excellent assessment of the problem read the Institute
of Employment Rights publication 'How
to Make Corporations Accountable' by Dr Dan Plesch and
Dr Stephanie Blankenburg.
On 31 March workers in
Belfast, Lisburn, Enfield and Basildon were told in meeting
of less than 10 minutes duration that they were to lose their
jobs and would not be receiving their rightful redundancy
and pension packages. In response the workers occupied some
of the sites. The lawyers had to advise of the illegality,
but the workers stuck with their cause and the union leaders
did their best in the face of anti-union laws. This time it
worked.
The Visteon workers won
a major victory as the Morning
Star reported on 1 May “after bosses backed down and offered
huge redundancy payouts.” Visteon workers will be given considerably
increased redundancy packages and preferential treatment when
applying for jobs with Ford in the future. The outcome shows
what can be achieved when workers fight back.
But the problem of anti-trade
union laws remains and the fight to establish fundamental
collective rights in the UK continues. What Ford did with
Visteon, British Airways did with Gate Gourmet, where the
unions sterling efforts to help the workers were holed below
the water by the anti-union laws.
The break up of companies,
increases in privatisation and outsourcing generally, and
the greater use of “atypical“ workers like agency workers
mean that Thatcher’s laws are more effective at crushing workers
in this century than they were in the last.
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