Published by Blakes for more
than a quarter of a century
than a quarter of a century
Amicus
Do or die
An estimated 10,000 manufacturing jobs are lost every month in the UK.
At the current rate of loss all four million UK manufacturing jobs and the five million service sector jobs that depend on them will cease to exist in the next quarter of a century.
Manufacturing's erosion has been blamed on many factors including market forces, globalisation and technological advances but at the heart of the problem is the government's failure to protect British jobs.
The UK government believes that least regulation results in greater investment and jobs but this 'flexible' approach to employment really translates as sacked manufacturing workers can find new jobs in low paid, low skilled sectors.
Amicus believes this short-term approach only benefits fly-by-night employers whose prime motive for investing in this country is how quickly and cheaply they can sack UK workers compared to those in other European countries.
Other countries in continental Europe apply a more proactive industrial policy and stronger employment laws. If the UK adopted job protection on a par with that in France and Germany, thousands of manufacturing jobs would be saved.
The effectiveness of the kind of employment protection and information and consultation rights is borne out by the figures. British manufacturing employment levels have dropped from 35% to 18% from 1990 to 2000 compared to only a 7% drop in France over the same ten year period.
Again and again we have seen multinationals cutting jobs in the UK first and shifting production to the continent where workers enjoy much greater employment protection while manufacturing jobs are sacrificed here to our 'flexible' approach to employment.
This becomes especially clear when you compare our situation with that in continental Europe. For example, countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain require 60% of transport infrastructure to built within their national boundaries. Our government does not. Yet this simple change could have reversed the fortunes of the workforce in Alstom's Washwood Heath plant.
And it is no coincidence that both Germany and France can boast much higher productivity rates and attract greater inward investment than those in the UK. By contrast we have one of the least regulated, least productive and lowest skilled workforces in Europe.
In fact it's difficult to understand the advantages of the government's policy to allow manufacturing jobs to be exported. After all, no other industry offers the mix, skills and new employment potential as manufacturing or the same added value to the economy. Yet we are asked to believe that manufacturing is an industry of the past and that new industries will take its' place in the economy. But workers in new service industries such as call centres and software companies are being hit by the lack of employment protection, industry research predicts that 700,000 services industry jobs will be lost to India, South Africa and the far east before the end of the decade.
The myth of smoke stack industries limping towards extinction must be exploded. Manufacturing in Britain has already moved away from assembly towards the high skill high added value end. The European car industry design facilities are concentrated in the UK. Shipbuilding designers use virtual reality engineering and the best trains in the world are made and designed in Britain -or at least they were!
Investment is all British manufacturing workers need to compete and win in the global market. For the last decade manufacturing companies have staged an investment strike, with the lowest levels of investment per employee in Europe. The government must create the environment that forces employers to invest in their workforce rather than relying on the redundancy notice to get them over financial difficulties. The only way to do this is with strong employment laws that give employers no alternative but to seek productivity improvements through a highly skilled workforce empowered with state of the art tools and IT. The proverb "A bad workman blames his tools" was made up by an employer too short sighted to invest in his workers.
As well as being good for workers and for the wider economy, stronger worker rights are good for business, boosting productivity, providing greater export opportunities and generating the supply chain and inward investment levels.
The government's decision to award a lucrative RAF contract for the Hawk Trainer Jet to BAE System's plant at Brough is an example of what can be achieved by working together. Thousands of highly skilled workers jobs and the East Yorkshire plant's future have been assured for the next half dozen years or so. Furthermore, valuable export contracts can now be won, the RAF has the product they want and the Treasury are happy with the price. Everybody wins.
We're not asking for any special favours, just a level playing field to enable British workers' a fighting chance. No other country is sacrificing their industrial base in this way because our competitors realise how vital manufacturing is, not only to the people that work in the sector, and in related service sector jobs`, but also for the whole UK economy.
The choice is a stark one but it's also a 'no brainer' - introduce the same employment protection rules as the rest of Europe or face killing off what remains of the UK manufacturing industry within a generation.
We believe it's worth fighting for.
At the current rate of loss all four million UK manufacturing jobs and the five million service sector jobs that depend on them will cease to exist in the next quarter of a century.
Manufacturing's erosion has been blamed on many factors including market forces, globalisation and technological advances but at the heart of the problem is the government's failure to protect British jobs.
The UK government believes that least regulation results in greater investment and jobs but this 'flexible' approach to employment really translates as sacked manufacturing workers can find new jobs in low paid, low skilled sectors.
Amicus believes this short-term approach only benefits fly-by-night employers whose prime motive for investing in this country is how quickly and cheaply they can sack UK workers compared to those in other European countries.
Other countries in continental Europe apply a more proactive industrial policy and stronger employment laws. If the UK adopted job protection on a par with that in France and Germany, thousands of manufacturing jobs would be saved.
The effectiveness of the kind of employment protection and information and consultation rights is borne out by the figures. British manufacturing employment levels have dropped from 35% to 18% from 1990 to 2000 compared to only a 7% drop in France over the same ten year period.
Again and again we have seen multinationals cutting jobs in the UK first and shifting production to the continent where workers enjoy much greater employment protection while manufacturing jobs are sacrificed here to our 'flexible' approach to employment.
This becomes especially clear when you compare our situation with that in continental Europe. For example, countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain require 60% of transport infrastructure to built within their national boundaries. Our government does not. Yet this simple change could have reversed the fortunes of the workforce in Alstom's Washwood Heath plant.
And it is no coincidence that both Germany and France can boast much higher productivity rates and attract greater inward investment than those in the UK. By contrast we have one of the least regulated, least productive and lowest skilled workforces in Europe.
In fact it's difficult to understand the advantages of the government's policy to allow manufacturing jobs to be exported. After all, no other industry offers the mix, skills and new employment potential as manufacturing or the same added value to the economy. Yet we are asked to believe that manufacturing is an industry of the past and that new industries will take its' place in the economy. But workers in new service industries such as call centres and software companies are being hit by the lack of employment protection, industry research predicts that 700,000 services industry jobs will be lost to India, South Africa and the far east before the end of the decade.
The myth of smoke stack industries limping towards extinction must be exploded. Manufacturing in Britain has already moved away from assembly towards the high skill high added value end. The European car industry design facilities are concentrated in the UK. Shipbuilding designers use virtual reality engineering and the best trains in the world are made and designed in Britain -or at least they were!
Investment is all British manufacturing workers need to compete and win in the global market. For the last decade manufacturing companies have staged an investment strike, with the lowest levels of investment per employee in Europe. The government must create the environment that forces employers to invest in their workforce rather than relying on the redundancy notice to get them over financial difficulties. The only way to do this is with strong employment laws that give employers no alternative but to seek productivity improvements through a highly skilled workforce empowered with state of the art tools and IT. The proverb "A bad workman blames his tools" was made up by an employer too short sighted to invest in his workers.
As well as being good for workers and for the wider economy, stronger worker rights are good for business, boosting productivity, providing greater export opportunities and generating the supply chain and inward investment levels.
The government's decision to award a lucrative RAF contract for the Hawk Trainer Jet to BAE System's plant at Brough is an example of what can be achieved by working together. Thousands of highly skilled workers jobs and the East Yorkshire plant's future have been assured for the next half dozen years or so. Furthermore, valuable export contracts can now be won, the RAF has the product they want and the Treasury are happy with the price. Everybody wins.
We're not asking for any special favours, just a level playing field to enable British workers' a fighting chance. No other country is sacrificing their industrial base in this way because our competitors realise how vital manufacturing is, not only to the people that work in the sector, and in related service sector jobs`, but also for the whole UK economy.
The choice is a stark one but it's also a 'no brainer' - introduce the same employment protection rules as the rest of Europe or face killing off what remains of the UK manufacturing industry within a generation.
We believe it's worth fighting for.
Dereck Simpon, General Secretary, Amicus
Copyright © 2005 Blake.