{"id":19860,"date":"2020-01-24T15:03:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T15:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19860"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","slug":"jlr-job-cuts-halewood-latest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19860","title":{"rendered":"‘Perfect storm’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In an update on Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (January 22) story<\/a>, politicians and industry experts have weighed in on the latest news that JLR is to axe 500 jobs at its Halewood plant in Merseyside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Labour MP Maria Eagle raised a point of order in the Commons on the day of the announcement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGiven the ongoing uncertainty about Brexit and the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trading relationship with the EU, worse may be to come,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCan you advise me, Mr Speaker, about how I can ensure that ministers and the PM himself take this existential threat to the auto-manufacturing industry in Liverpool as seriously as they should and seek to help those losing their jobs as much as they can?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Others also called for government action, with Liverpool metro mayor Steve Rotherham calling the news \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdevastating for workers in Halewood\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be working with both the leader of Knowlsey council and Unite to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdo what we can to support the plant and the workforce\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government also needs to be stepping in to support vital UK manufacturing,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Wednesday (January 22), JLR announced major changes to the Halewood plant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shift patterns from three shifts to two, meaning 10 per cent of the factory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workforce will be made redundant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About 4,000 people are directly employed at the JLR plant in Merseyside, with an additional 500 working as agency staff.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The car firm said it would be operating an enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme and that the shift changes aim to bring about \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsignificant operating efficiencies\u00e2\u20ac\u0165. The changes are expected to be completed by spring this year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One Halewood JLR worker told the Liverpool Echo<\/em><\/a> that people just wanted \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcertainty for their futures\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fair really,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said, adding, “I’m not inclined to take redundancy as I’m not sure where else I’d be able to get a job as good as this one.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Industry expert David Bailey, a professor of business economics at Birmingham Business School, told the Echo<\/em><\/a> that while it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear what \u00e2\u20ac\u015blevel of redundancies there will be at Halewood and whether or not this is part of the 4,500 job cuts announced last year or on top of that\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, he added that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEither way, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad news.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bailey pointed out that the firm has \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfaced something of a perfect storm\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 including falling sales in China, the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest car market, a shift away from diesel cars across Europe and Brexit uncertainty \u00e2\u20ac\u015bslowing the UK market and investment in general\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer Des Quinn emphasised that Unite will ensure that the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcommitment to limit job losses to voluntary redundancies is fully honoured\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quinn also highlighted that challenges facing UK car manufacturing overall and slammed the government for not doing more to support the industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car industry has plummeted from being the jewel in the crown of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manufacturing sector in a few short years, directly as a result of government inaction,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUntil the government ensures that there is long-term frictionless trade and no tariffs with the European Union along with meaningful investment in the infrastructure to ensure the success of electric vehicles, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car industry will continue to experience severe challenges.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an update on Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (January 22) story, politicians and industry experts have weighed in on the latest news that JLR is to axe 500 jobs at its Halewood plant in Merseyside.   Labour MP Maria Eagle raised a point of order in the Commons on the day of the announcement.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGiven the ongoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[230,386,212],"wps_subtitle":"Unite and others call for government action after JLR job cuts announcement","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19860"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24753,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19860\/revisions\/24753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}