Ford sackings part of speed-up plan

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THE announcement y Ford that it plans to axe 1,300 jobs at its Halewood Plant appears to be related first and foremost to a renewed drive for increased productivity on the shop floor.

In addition to the Halewood move, management are currently refusing to supplement the nearexhausted fund to finance lay off pay for other Ford workers on short-time -due to run out next month.

Halewood management have proposed a voluntary redundancy scheme to cut 1,300 jobs by April: and in its supporting arguments has teferred to the different levels of output from its Halewood workforce compared with that at its other plant producing the top-selling Escort - Saarlouis Germany.

A review of labour costs and efficiency at Halewood is to be held, and unions have been told that "changes in attitudes" are needed at the plant.

'Even if Halewood was producing at full capacity it would require a manpower reduction of about 3,000 in order to match the production efficiency of Saarlouis" , announced operations manager Ted Rayment.

And to crack the whip for speed-up still more loudly he stressed that 'What we are talking about is. Halewood's survival."

Ford is the only British motor manufacturer to have made a profit last year, and is plainly intent upon sustaining its lead both by raising prices and by tightening the screws on the shop floor workforce.

Such cynical attentpts to play off one plant against another - in this case a British workforce against a German plant - must be combatted by the trade union movement through the fight to expose the company's real plans and the actual figures on which they are based.

This means that stewards in Halewood should seek direct links with those in Saarlouis, and take up the fight for the opening of the books of Ford's giant multinational operations to the inspection of elected trade union committees.

In the meantime attempts in Halewood to cut manning levels through the voluntary redundancy scheme must be fought by all out stoppages, linked, in the event of threatened closure, to occupation of the plant.

It is not only the motor industry which is the scene of the latest drive towards speed-up. Pay talks covering thousands of fuel tanker drivers have ground to a halt as a result of management insistence on including productivity clauses in their 6.5-7% offer. My feeling is that the only real solution is through the nationalisation of the entire car, truck, bus, tyre and components industry under workers control and the development of a plan for the industry.

The present government is not going to agree to that, and if Golding and Co.