The fight for Ford jobs is under way
CONCERN about the future of the Ford plant in Bridgend has been high ever since the cut in investment in the Dragon engine project was announced last year.
The reduction in investment from £181m to £100m was a warning sign and now there are fears 1,160 jobs could go.
Such a loss of skilled positions would be a blow for the community and will intensify fears that manufacturing in Wales is under threat.
Under the worst case scenario, there could be 600 workers left by 2021.
To secure the long-term viability of the facility more orders are needed. But it is reported that leaked documents show the plant is underperforming when compared with counterparts such as Dagenham in Essex.
The level of overtime at Bridgend is reportedly twice that at Dagenham, which is understood to add 6% to the costs of engines.
Ford will demand improvements in performance if it is going to continue to invest millions in the site.
Officials at different levels of Government who spent much of last year trying to secure a future for Tata’s steelworks in Wales will now be readying themselves for a campaign to keep Bridgend a hub for engine production.
It is clear that Wales faces intense competition for investment within the UK and from rivals in the EU and around the world.
International companies will look for where they can find the highest skilled workers at the lowest cost in the most favourable trading environment.
The UK is not a low-cost economy and it is about to leave the European Union. Meanwhile, there is plentiful cheap labour in a host of rival countries that are pumping out millions of highlytrained graduates.
If Welsh manufacturing is to have a future it must turbo-charge its productivity. We need fantastic infrastructure and the best possible international transport links, and we will require workers with skills that don’t just match but surpass those of their global counterparts.
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said the Welsh Government stands ready to “support the plant in becoming more productive and crucially in securing new products”.
A similar effort will be needed at sites across Wales in the months and years ahead.
Supporters of Brexit say it would be counterproductive for the EU to slap tariffs on our automotive exports and argue manufacturing is already benefiting from the lower pound.
Theresa May said in her Lancaster House speech that the free trade agreement she hopes to negotiate with the EU “may take in elements of current Single Market arrangements in certain areas – on the export of cars and lorries for example, or the freedom to provide financial services across national borders – as it makes no sense to start again from scratch”.
If such a deal cannot be agreed there will be anxiety in households across Britain. The stakes are frighteningly high. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%