Battle to save car plant is lost
Workers forced to accept redundancy deal in ‘hammer blow’ to the region
The closure of the plant by GKN / Melrose is a betrayal of the national interest
THE workforce at a Birmingham automotive factory have reluctantly accepted a redundancy package confirming the end of their battle to keep the site open.
After a near year-long battle to save the GKN Automotive plant in Chester Road, Erdington, its 519 ‘highly skilled’ workers accepted a revised redundancy offer, spelling the end for the plant under its current ownership.
The closure has been described a ‘hammer blow’ for the area by Erdington MP Jack Dromey.
The firm announced plans to close the plant in January this year and rejected an alternative plan put forward by Unite union officials, senior management at the plant, shop stewards and Mr Dromey in May.
And the union described the failure to engage and make any attempt to keep the factory open was a ‘betrayal of a highly skilled workforce’.
Strike action announced last month was called off as bosses agreed to a crisis meeting – but evidently it came to nothing.
The Erdington site makes driveline systems for the car industry and is one of the UK’s oldest engineering firms. Its primary customer is Jaguar Land Rover, which has plants nearby by Castle Vale, and in Solihull.
Unite said the site was in ‘pole position’ to produce the new propulsion units required for electric cars but claimed GKN Melrose ‘dismissed
the proposal out of hand’.
Instead it is shifting work to a factory in Poland, which Unite said was a country ‘heavily dependent on coal power’ to generate electricity in direct opposition to a carbon neutral future.
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “Melrose’s shameful decision to close the last UK plant operated by GKN automotive in Erdington betrays not only the 519 workers at the factory but leaves a gaping hole in the UK supply chain as Melrose seeks to increase profits by exporting manufacturing operations to Poland.
“Melrose is very happy to take UK taxpayers’ money to support the research and development of new electric drive systems, but when it comes to supporting the workers and communities who give them that money with manufacturing work, disgracefully they run away.
“With the world’s leaders gathered at the COP26 climate summit, our government should be leading from the front. That means no more soundbites and rhetoric but an industrial plan and genuine support for UK based manufacturing to reduce our carbon footprint.
“In the meantime, Erdington and 519 skilled workers are open for business, looking for a manufacturer to take over the plant and build here in Britain the products that are urgently needed to green our economy, investing in jobs and communities as well as our planet.”
MP Jack Dromey said: “The loss of 519 good, well-paid jobs in an area of high deprivation – the fifth most deprived constituency in the country – will be a hammer blow.
“The closure of the plant by GKN/ Melrose is a betrayal of the British national interest. Never again can our manufacturing base be left so exposed to the greed and short-termism of private equity-style firms who have no interest in the long-term strategic interests of the British automotive industry.
“After 70 years, production will be exported to Poland and France. And to add insult to injury, during the weeks of Cop26, GKN-made parts for British cars will now travel on supply chains hundreds of miles longer and from countries still reliant on coal for their energy.”
GKN has been owned by venture capitalists Melrose since 2018.
Jack Dromey MP