Within minutes, it was clear that the only negotiations would be over redundancy terms. Linamar took over the plant from Visteon in July 2008. Visteon was the company created by Ford in 2000 from its component plants. The other three Visteon plants, located in Basildon, Enfield and Belfast, went into administration last year.
Despite most of the Swansea workers being on terms and conditions and pensions ‘mirrored’ to that of Ford, Linamar assured the workforce that they had secured new engine work from Ford, most of which would be supplied to their engine plant in Bridgend.
This would replace their existing work on power take off transmission units (PTUs).
However, as Rob Williams convenor of the Unite union in the plant, said: “They have kept their word on all the bad news, like the PTUs, but have reneged on all their positive promises like the new work and our contracts. Many of us would have lost £600 per month!”
Linamar workers believe that it is now clear that Linamar was only interested in securing the work from Ford, work that will now go to the German plant.
Ford has received financial assistance from government agencies. Ford should be forced to insist that Linamar makes the engine work in Swansea. The union in the Swansea plant will be meeting the workforce over the next few days, ahead of a mass meeting on Monday evening, to discuss fighting the closure.
On 26 June, a gay couple were violently assaulted in Shipquay Street, Derry. Just a month previously, two men were found guilty of the homophobic murder of Shaun Fitzpatrick in Dungannon in 2008. These brutal attacks must be met with a firm response from the LGBT community and by workers and young people everywhere.
News reports have not yet provided a definitive account of the extent of the IDF attack on the flotilla of eight humanitarian aid ships on their way to Gaza. However it is clear that IDF forces have taken over some of the ships and at least 10 unarmed activists have been slaughtered and others injured. There are at least eleven Irish nationals on this flotilla and we do not yet know the condition they are in.
The I CAN Centre in Ballynahinch has again been threatened with closure and thrust into another period of uncertainty by the South Eastern Education and Library Board in this first round of savage cuts across education.