Britain: support Jaguar workers: Coventry demo report

Thousands of workers gathered in Coventry at the end of November to protest against the closure of the Jaguar plant in Brown's Lane with a projected loss of 1150 jobs. Workers from Brown's Lane were joined by large contingents from Jaguar plants in Halewood, Merseyside and Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands. There were workers present from across the industry - Rover, Land Rover, Peugeot and Vauxhall banners were all present along with other banners from unions such as the PCS, CWU, UNISON, Amicus and T&G.

There was a good atmosphere on the demo, and a friendly response from the public as it proceeded through the city centre. The march ended in the centre and there were a number of speakers including TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, Tony Woodley of the T&G and Derek Simpson of Amicus.

Tony Woodley said: "This is a dispute to stop British workers and Jaguar workers being the cannon fodder of multinational companies".

Mike O'Brien, Labour MP for North Warwickshire, described the closing of Brown's Lane as a hammer blow for manufacturing in the West Midlands. He also said that it would be felt by the whole community, because there are many more jobs that are reliant on the Jaguar plant.

A 16 year old school boy from a family who have worked for Jaguar for generations illustrated how important these jobs are saying: "Why should they close the place when it's one of Jaguar's most productive factories? My generation should have the opportunity to work in their local area."

Jaguar is planning to close Brown's Lane and its R&D plant in Whitley. They have said that production at the remaining two plants will be stepped up. The march was intended to build support and give a boost to the yes vote for strike action. The ballot runs till December 13th.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 with financial assistance from the British government. Since then over £9 million of government money has been ploughed into Jaguar. In 1998 jaguar signed agreements with the unions promising that the future of West Midlands plants would be secure. As late as this September when they cut production by 15,000 cars they were still guaranteeing the plants future. However for companies like this nothing is as important as profit and that is what the recent closures are about. After 14 years of government subsidies they are preparing to cut and run at Browns Lane. Jaguar's main market is now the US where they have 60% of their sales. Many workers are now questioning what their long terms motives are with regard to UK sites.

The unions must take a decisive stand. The car industry has been battered enough. We should not accept any further job losses, plant closures or attacks on wages and conditions.

The best form of defence is attack. The membership can only be mobilised on the basis of a serious fight and a positive programme for the industry. We should be fighting for improvements in wages and working conditions, and a shorter working week with no loss of wages (where overcapacity exists it should be easy to cut the working day).

At the same time the unions must put pressure on the Labour Government to nationalise under workers control the assets of any company that is attacking conditions or shutting plant. It is therefore important that we take this struggle into the Labour Party to chuck out the careerist clique that has hijacked it and fight for socialist policies in the interests of our members.