Think again

Ford has been told by Unite it must reconsider a cost-cutting programme which will slash around 200 hundred skilled staff jobs at its UK operations.

The car giant – which recently revealed its European business had returned to profit – has announced measures aimed at saving nearly £140m a year.

A voluntary redundancy scheme has been launched, with company bosses quoted as saying the headcount would be reduced by “multiple hundreds” in administration and marketing.

Unite reps fear that’s likely to signal a 10 per cent reduction of existing UK staff in those departments.

Effective organisation

Les McDonald, national staff chairman of Unite at Ford, said, “We are continually proven to be Ford’s most cost effective, highly efficient organisation in Europe, if not the world delivering efficiencies year on year to assist in reducing costs in our European business.

“The trade unions have a proven track record at working with the company to achieve efficiencies but this plan is very different.

“This plan seeks to take out whole departments of skilled administration jobs which will never return to the UK again. This is not seeking to make savings through efficiencies but purely to offshore highly-skilled and productive jobs to low-cost countries using cheaper labour rates.

“This in a market where we sell more Ford cars in Britain than the rest of Europe,” he added.

Crucial jobs

“These are highly skilled manufacturing admin support jobs; they are about the finance, logistics and support for European plants. They are crucial to the operation,” said McDonald.

Ford employs several thousand workers in the UK. Plants in Dagenham and Bridgend make car parts; there are also sites in Dunton in Essex, Daventry in Northamptonshire, and a head office at Warley in Essex.

Roger Madison, Unite National Officer for automotives, said he was disappointed by the news.

“Ford have decided to announce this restructuring during, rather than at the end, of consultation.

Think again

“We understand the need to save money and become more efficient but if Ford think they are going to do this by off-shoring our work to low cost economies they can think again.

Treacherous act

“We will not stand idle and watch highly skilled jobs disappear without a fight. Ford have acted shamefully by going to press now, this act of treachery will forever tar relations between us,” he added.

Globally Ford made close to ÂŁ7.5 billion in profits last year.