Giving up not an option

Heavy manufacturing equipment firm Caterpillar announced another raft of job losses yesterday (September 1), a move which Unite has condemned, calling it another blow to Northern Ireland’s manufacturing base.

More than 200 jobs will be cut, which will mean the shuttering of the US firm’s Monkstown plant in Newtownabbey.

Currently, Caterpillar employs about 1800 people in Northern Ireland in factories in Newtonabbey, Larne and west Belfast.

Caterpillar has blamed the job losses and planned restructuring, which will also see the end of production of 25-tonne and larger material handlers in Northern Ireland, on global economic conditions, such as the slump in oil exploration and mining, which has dampened demand for its products.

The news follows many announcements of job losses in manufacturing in Northern Ireland over the last year, including from aerospace giant Bombardier, tobacco firm JTI and tyre company Michelin.

Unite regional coordinating officer Davy Thompson noted that Unite will be fully engaging with Caterpillar management during the upcoming consultation period and will seek to minimise the impact of this announcement and secure members’ employment.

“Last year, Caterpillar indicated that the five thousand redundancies it brought forward globally were likely to increase to ten thousand by the end of 2018,” Thompson noted.

“Unfortunately, our political representatives stood idly by and did nothing to minimise the threat this posed to Caterpillar’s Northern Ireland workforce. It is vital that we now see real action to safeguard as many jobs and lines of production as we can.”

Thompson slammed the Northern Ireland Executive parties which, he said, “appear to believe that manufacturing is a lost cause.”

“They voted down proposals for a stand-alone strategy for the sector and there’s continued failure to win foreign-direct Investment in the sector.

“Thousands of experienced, highly-skilled and now redundant, manufacturing workers need appropriate employment opportunities,” Thompson noted.  “Giving up on manufacturing is not an option for these workers or the communities which face post-industrial futures.”

Thompson blamed Executive ministers for denying the fact that there is a crisis in manufacturing.

“By only considering the past three years’ statistics, they claim that total industrial employment is increasing but the reality is that more than three thousand four hundred jobs have been lost in the sector in the last ten years,” he explained. “And that is before the recent major job losses and closures are counted. Total employment in manufacturing remains below its pre-recession peak.

“Contrary to ministerial statements, the sector is moving down, as opposed to up, the value chain with job-losses concentrated in some of the highest-skilled manufacturing sectors and job creation happening in lower-skilled sectors,” Thompson noted.

He added that “today must mark a turning point in Stormont’s industrial policy.”

Unite is writing to both economy and finance ministers to urge them to adopt a stand-alone manufacturing strategy which will focus attention on the need for real action to help Northern Ireland’s industrial base.