[albatross Patrick Spilling looks at the latest jobs…]

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albatross Patrick Spilling looks at the latest jobs RK have been ignored by trade unions, the relevance of self-organisation and solidarity, that unions, despite how they have treated these groups in the past, do have something to offer. This for us is a concrete expression, within Region 6 of the TGWU, of the necessary link between those in and those out of work.

Voice

These are the problems that we'll all have to face and overcome if we are to succeed. And at root, they are political problems and their resolution demands the attention and support of all activists and socialists. As our first dole bulletin will say:

"For too long this government in particular, has been able to rule as if the unemployed were slaves, without rights and without a voice. We seek to change that."

disaster.

DE LOREAN's gull-winged luxury cars have a problem with their finish.

If the owner of one of these smart $25,000-plus toys is unlucky enough to get a handprint on the bodywork, it becomes a permanent part of the decor. It is virtually impossible to shift the mark without a special spray which the manufacturers now have to dish out out to all owners.

The blemish is instructive. There is a similar grubby, well-thumbed feel about the deal struck between John De Lorean and James Prior on behalf of the Thatcher government.

The Cabinet was publicly committed not to add to the 280 million stake already sunk into the South Belfast factory, but could not afford politically to be seen to be allowing the complete collapse of the project - particularly at the same time as the Laker collapse.

The decision to call in Sir Kenneth Cork, the receiver, was forced on De Lorean by Prior. It put a distance between the Government and any catastrophic end result.

It avoided for the time being the question of whether to write off £80 million given to a man who comes out of the collapse with his own personal fortune intact and a flourishing US company ready to profit out of any new Belfast production.

The Belfast workers who were supposed to benefit from this brilliant project are left to sit and sweat.

Of the 2,600 workers, 1,100 have already lost their jobs. Many of the 1,500 still being paid face the axe even if the company is 'rescued' , since the scale of production will be dramatically reduced.

Praised

Yet, far from calling for occupations or attacking De Lorean, the trade union leaders have praised him for his efforts:

Unemployment in the area rises to 50 per cent on some Catholic estates. At least another 2,000 jobs in Britain and Northern Ireland are at risk in the component manufacturers.

The overall total could be 7,000 jobs, and the company owes about £40 million. How did this state of affairs come about?

The cars being built in Dunmurry, where there were green fields until 1980, are aimed at the US executive car market competing with Porsche and Mercedes.

It is typical of capitalist production that one of the most downtrodden labour forces in Europe has been forced to link its future to the menopausal aspirations of the richest ruling class on the planet.

Craven

•In 1978 De Lorean was touring the world seeking to set up production of his dream car at well below American labour rates, and seeking the best possible deal in Government subsidies and tax concessions. At the same time the Labour government was looking • for some relief from the unemployment rates in the Six Counties.

It says something for the cravenness of the Callaghan Cabinet that it was able- through the Northern Ireland Office - to outbid Southern Ireland and Puerto Rico.

Roy 'Butcher' Mason took the credit for the deal, announcing a £63 million package subsidies. Unions were told the project would be off if they rocked the boat, and De Lorean himself - looking like a refugee from an American TV series - appeared regularly on British TV to drawl his confidence in the project.

The factory was built at breakneck speed, and many workers in South Belfast found themselves in work for the first time in their lives.

But before the first cars were produced, Just over a year • ago, De Lorean had to go back to the Thatcher government for another £14 De Lorean was talking of selling 18,000 to 20,000 cars a year in the United States. The Belfast plant was initially cushioned against the extravagance of these aims because of the distribution system.

De Lorean set up a net work of dealers in the United States who each had to invest heavily in the car. This meant that cars were 'in demand' from the dealers completely out of relation to the potential sales.

A second production shift was taken on last year, and Government nominees on the De Lorean board were behind moves - later scrapped - to increase pay to the executives.

As it was, De Lorean was paying himself well over $200,000 a year and - according to the Sunday Times - his personal expenses were running at the rate of £3,500 a month after he knew his firm was in trouble.

He stayed in the best hotels, flew by Concorde and put two of his servants on the company payroll.

BL workers and train drivers may legitimately wonder why these extravagances on public money were not exposed as a scandal in the press.

The De Lorean pipe dream was rapidly crumbiing. Less than half the 7,700 cars made by the end of last year were sold, and dealers had only accepted 4,750.

De Lorean's attempts to raise big money on Wall Street had failed, and he went back to the Government for help.

But this time it was the receiver. Prior said, "No credibility would have been left in many things we are seeking to do to help in Ulster had we other course"' Like all freeloaders, De Lorean can walk away intact. He is not responsible for any debts personally, and now his US-owned distribution system has also been freed from the Belfast losses.' He has even been making ludicrous allegations of being firebombed on average more than once a day — yet the trade union leaders he left behind still praise him.

TGWU convenor George Clark confined himself to expressing anger and disappointment at the Government's failure to give De Lorean another blańk cheque.

Concannon

Collaboration began with the Labour government, and has continued with the Labour opposition. The debate in the House of Commons last week revealed the usual friendship and mutual admiration between Prior and Don Concannon, the Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland.

Prior appealed to the House, "Nothing should be said which in any way makes the task of Sir Kenneth Cork [the receiver] more difficult"

Concannon was fully behind Prior.

"'The key word for the future must be confidence. SS Prior The De Lorean car will be marketable only when dealers and consumers have confidence in continued production and in the support of the Commons.

'The more people have knocked De Lorean, the more sales have been restricted in American and harmed jobs. We want an end to these personal antagonisms. There is a future for the De Lorean car in numerous markets around the world"

Invited to comment on the original Labour decision to back De Lorean, Prior was in generous mood:

•There may be some doubt with the benefit of hindsight whether this was the right project to go into, but the trouble is in North. ern Ireland when one is desperate to attract industry to get employment improvea, you tend to go for industries which otherwise would not require that degree of assistance and might be in a stronger position"

Prior's comment was greeted by Labour cheers.

dustry, then that is clear evidence that bi-partisanship is alive and well and living in the Six Counties.

The future holds bleak prospects for the De Lorean workers. Cork is said to be looking at a plan to produce about 8,500 cars a year, but that is probably more than the recession-hit US market will bear. A lower level of production - say the 6,000 that could be sold -would leave the production company operating at a permanent loss.

If it is kept going, the distribution in the US will have to be handled by De Lorean, and at present the distributors are on a gross profit of around $4,000 a car. If the 8,500 target were reached, this would give De Lorean a turnover in the US of $34 million a year.

In return for continuing this network (which is in his interests anyway) De Lorean has obtained major concessions from the British Government, the most important being that he has been freed from his guarantees to meet the Irish debts from his American company.

De Lorean has escaped scot free, and the only real losers are the thousands of workers in Belfast and in the component industries for whom the gull-winged car has become an albatross round their necks.