BMW, the German vehicle maker, today announced plans to lay off 850 weekend agency staff at its Mini factory in Cowley, near Oxford, as the slowdown in demand for cars worsens.
Agency workers leaving Cowley this morning expressed their anger at being given just one hour’s notice of losing their job. The company made the announcements just as the staff affected were finishing their shift.
"It’s a disgrace. I feel as though I’ve been used. We should have been given one month’s notice, not one hour," said one worker.
John Cunningham, who has worked at the factory for more than two years, said he felt betrayed. "We’ve been given a week’s pay for an enforced week off, which I suppose is a week’s notice. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me and my family. It’s very scary."
Union sources said workers booed and threw apples and oranges at managers after being told the news.
"Sacking an entire shift like this, and targeting agency workers who have no rights to redundancy pay, is blatant opportunism on BMW’s part and nothing short of scandalous," said Tony Woodley, the joint leader of the Unite union.
"BMW’s parent company couldn’t attempt this in Germany because it would be illegal to do so. It is a disgrace, therefore, that workers in this country can be so casually thrown to the dole."
The number of production days at the factory will be reduced from seven to five once the job cuts come into force on March 2, and permanent staff deployed on weekend shifts will be redeployed to the week.
BMW also announced today that it will close down production at the plant for one week in response to plunging demand for new cars.
The company said in a statement: "While Mini has been weathering the economic downturn, it is not immune from the challenges of the current situation.
"Against this backdrop the company felt that a review of its shift patterns was necessary. This decision has not been taken lightly. The plant’s union representatives have, of course, been involved in the discussions."
A spokeswoman said that there were "no current plans" to make permanent staff redundant. The plant employs 940 agency staff alongside 4,300 permanent workers.
BMW's factories at Swindon and Hams Hall near Birmingham, which supply parts to Cowley, will not be affected by the cuts, the company said.
The job cuts at BMW follow 220 jobs cut last week by Bentley, the luxury carmaker, around 10 per cent of its workforce. Ford axed 850 jobs earlier this month. Last month Nissan cut 1,200 jobs in Britain and Jaguar Land Rover cut 450.
Toyota and Vauxhall, which is owned by General Motors, are also considering reducing their British workforces and Honda enforced a four-month lay-off at its Swindon plant.
Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, said the job losses showed how deeply the recession was now affecting the motor industry, given that BMW was a "hugely profitable" firm and Cowley was an efficient factory.
He said: "There is a huge onus on the Government to take drastic action to support the motor industry and to encourage people to buy cars. The banks will also have to start making credit available again or this is going to lead to disaster."
Malcolm Harbour, a Conservative MEP for the West Midlands and a former director of the Rover car company, said: "The British Government is not tackling the underlying cause of manufacturers’ woes: the lack of demand for new vehicles.
"Getting loans to car and commercial vehicle customers now is essential, but all the Government has done so far is set up a committee. The Government should be seeking to make the vehicles already on the forecourts more attractive to hesitant consumers."
In January, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, outlined a £2.3 billion aid plan for the motor industry that will guarantee loans to car and components companies.
Gordon Brown’s spokesman said that the job losses at Cowley were very disappointing news. "All I can say really is the Government is doing and will do all that we can to help those affected.”
The Mini celebrates its 50th anniversary in August of this year. Cowley was one of the factories that produced the original 848cc model designed by Sir Alec Issigonis.
After production of the old design finally ceased in 2000 it was replaced by a new, more powerful version with a 1.4 litre engine which has also proved hugely successful, especially abroad, with 80 per cent of the factory’s output sold for export. But worldwide sales were down by 35 per cent last month and by a similar amount in the UK, in line with a slump which hit all car manufacturers.
Cowley started building the new Mini in 2001 and the factory has a capacity to produce 260,000 models a year.
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