45K? Factory worker? Earning more than some graduates.
I think this comment shows a misunderstanding about modern manufacturing. Much factory work is not low skilled stupid work. I am sure the wages vary across the site but in general modern manufacturing is a skilled job. Many operators are also now performing some be maintenance jobs on their machines and electrical and mechanical staff are swapped across more lines. In addition to this is shift work (plus overtime) and the fact that production environment is although much better than 50 years ago, is still not that nice a place to work. A fair chunk of pressure and a noisy hectic environment.
Each one of these facts results in a uplift of washes. In addition for manufacturing production is king. Staff retention is very important as a line working at a slower rate or downtime can be coating mega money per min. Pay a little more, get people to commit. Keep the lines running with high efficiency.
Brexit or Trump has nothing to do with this.
Of course not.
Ford has previously warned that a no-deal Brexit could be ‘catastrophic’ for the British auto industry.</quote>
Bridgend had a brexit majority in the referendum.
Brexit or Trump has nothing to do with this.
Of course not.
Ford has previously warned that a no-deal Brexit could be ‘catastrophic’ for the British auto industry.</quote>
Whoop, there it is 🤷♂️
Ford blamed "changing customer demand and cost" for the closure plans and denied Brexit was a factor.
I bet Brexit is never mentioned in senior ford management meetings, much! :/
Well, if the obvious isn’t actually obvious then clearly the obvious is lost on you.
You can quote all you like, manipulate whatever media press release you like.
But when it comes from the Board and Press of the company involved it’s seem obvious that obviously the obvious isn’t misconstrued as obvious.
🤷♂️
Enjoy you day
Nonsence. Brexit or Trump has nothing to do with this. It takes years of planning to close down a factory, and million of pounds of investment, you just don’t do it on a whim or in reaction to a short term political thing like brexit and trump. This plant has been on wind down for a while
That seems like a sort of self defeating argument; Brexit was voted on in 2016, and the closure will be happening in 2020 so this 'could' be interpreted as the implementation phase of a four year wind down plan triggered (at least in part) by the events of 2016...
And if such closures are planned well in advance then obviously Ford wouldn't announce it straight after the referendum they still had several productive years to squeeze out of the place and you don't want to demoralise the workforce too early. In fact I did note it was reported on the news last night that 2017 was apparently a relative high point for productivity at Bridgend but if the process was already in motion...
What British car can I buy? Just wondering for when all these horrible non UK companies final bugger off home and stop competing with us.
Bloody foreigners, coming over here creating jobs.... Oh.
Nissan Leaf.
Morgan? Caterham? McLaren? Lotus?
maybe I've missed it, but I've not seen any Westminster politicians making any comments on this....have I missed it?
Morgan are now owned by an overseas investor. I think the most 'british' thing would be an Orange with Hope gears : )
Nonsence. Brexit or Trump has nothing to do with this. It takes years of planning to close down a factory, and million of pounds of investment, you just don’t do it on a whim
well actually they warned 3 years ago this might happen
brexit & trump might not be the only factor but obviously A factor & trumps trade war has certainly contributed to a slide in demand
& its demonstrably untrue that trump hasnt had an impact on factory moves https://www.dallasnews.com/business/autos/2017/01/26/cost-ford-abandon-mexico-car-plant-trump-disliked
Why a $1.6bn car plant has been left to decay
Ford have been moving their production from the UK to other EU countries for quite a few years now, the EU subsidise this to get weaker countries a stronger manufacturing base, and it's cheaper labour for Ford.
It was happening a long while before the Brexit vote, the EU didn't help Dagenham and Hailwood (and many other Ford sites).
It was happening a long while before the Brexit vote, the EU didn’t help Dagenham and Hailwood (and many other Ford sites).
this kind of BS needs to be called out
yes, the EIB have given loans to car makers in other EU countries but they also do so in britain
12 of 13 of the current Tory leadership candidates say they are fine with a no deal Brexit adding 10% to the cost of all cars exported from the UK to EU (which is where 35% of all cars we export go)
of the 30,000 components that make up a car the majority cross the channel at least once
car companies have already had to spend £millions stockpiling & preparing for the delays a no deal brexit would cause.
Yes the industry is changing, the headwinds of chinese slowdown (trumps trade war!) the switch to electric etc.
BUT the government could & should be helping to steer investment into the country,
as the EU are (belatedly) doing https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/european-battery-alliance_en
instead government is focused on one thing only & will be for the next decade at least as we try to replace the current relationship we are ripping up.
What British car can I buy?
Frankly the idea of buying a car for any single country of origin is almost laughable in the 21st century.
Do you care where the maker has it's HQ?
Or the country is was founded it?
Or the country the body is made it? If so the main frame you don't really see or the bits of the body you do see?
Or the country they made the engine / motor?
Or the country they made the electrical system which is probably more important than the power plant now?
Or the country they made all the small bits that make up any of the big bits listed above?
Or indeed the country where they designed and tested any of the above?
It's daft really, it's like my Bird bike - "built in Britain" yeah we sort of, assembled in Britain using a frame that was designed here, but built in the far east, finished with American suspension, made in the Taiwan, from parts made all over the middle east, Swiss wheels, again, built in Switzerland, but some of the parts were made in Asia, Tyres that are sort of British and sort of Taiwanese at the same time and dozens of other tiny, forgettable bits of bits made globally.
That's sums up the madness of populism/Brexit/trump etc
We are long past the point of being self sufficient in anything, if we want to keep the stuff we like, eg batteries to power our gadgets, cars, store our power etc require lithium from Chile bauxite from Australia, rare earth's from China & Africa.....
Supply chains are insanely complex, but people don't want to know about that, they want to be told that if they vote for Brexit life will become great.
I work in automotive manufacturing supply chain. There are many different headwinds affecting the industry, most of which have been mentioned already in this thread. At my company, production is down almost 25% from the peak of a couple of years back.
I think with brexit supported by a huge number of people, many companies simply don't want to alienate a large part of their customer base by blaming it. But the fact is its not helping, and will continue to be an issue until the country has a clear direction.
It may not be solely to blame, but it will be the straw that breaks the back for many in my industry and others.
I expect to be redundant from a well paid, interesting and irreplaceable job within 5 years.
this kind of BS needs to be called out
After living in Sth Essex and talking to friends who've worked for Ford's for years, this is what I've been repeatedly told by several people from differing Ford locations. Please don't say it's 'BS', it's just a differing opinion!
TheBrick
Member
45K? Factory worker? Earning more than some graduates.I think this comment shows a misunderstanding about modern manufacturing. Much factory work is not low skilled stupid work. I am sure the wages vary across the site but in general modern manufacturing is a skilled job. Many operators are also now performing some be maintenance jobs on their machines and electrical and mechanical staff are swapped across more lines. In addition to this is shift work (plus overtime) and the fact that production environment is although much better than 50 years ago, is still not that nice a place to work. A fair chunk of pressure and a noisy hectic environment.
Each one of these facts results in a uplift of washes. In addition for manufacturing production is king. Staff retention is very important as a line working at a slower rate or downtime can be coating mega money per min. Pay a little more, get people to commit. Keep the lines running with high efficiency.
Having worked on the NISSAN production line for the last 20 years, I concur!
Edit: I don’t earn £45k a year!
Frankly the idea of buying a car for any single country of origin is almost laughable in the 21st century.
No, but you can buy cars from companies that invest in the UK one way or the other.
Anyway. If Brexit doesn't directly impact manufacturer's decisions, it will ultimately. If our economy slides or even looks like it's going to slide then a new car purchase is likely to be the easiest thing for most people to put off, which will hurt the industry both in the UK and abroad.
After living in Sth Essex and talking to friends who’ve worked for Ford’s for years, this is what I’ve been repeatedly told by several people from differing Ford locations. Please don’t say it’s ‘BS’, it’s just a differing opinion!
your issue is with globalisation
as I pointed out the EIB have given loans to other countries in this case £80m to Turkey, but they have also given (as your article points out) £450m to ford UK
in this case what did our government do to prevent the closure of the southampton plant? the UK spends considerable less (2-5x) less on state aid than france, germany, holland etc.
what I was calling BS was blaming Brussles for the shortcoming of Westminster which is often the problem, something that shouldve been obvious after the last 3 years of cool calm negotiating on the EUs half & the absolute shambles of UK government
UK used to be a good base for multinationals to get into europe. Lower wages and much lower worker protection. Now with brixit they will not in future be able to sell tariff free from the UK to Europe so they no longer need the plants
I work in large scale pharmaceutical manufacturing here - we are banging out as many batches as possible and shipping them before October. We had a mad rush before March as well - so the idea that Brexit is not altering industrial strategy is laughable. Of course it is, although it may have just been a contributory cause in Fords decision to close - as opposed to a root cause.
I was googling for parts that make up cars made in the UK, was a good example of how supply lines are damaged by brexit
even the uk sourced parts in that picture would require input materials from elsewhere too
see also
The American carmaker also conceded yesterday that a no-deal Brexit could yet put another 6,000 British production and development jobs at risk in Essex, east London and Merseyside.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-deal-may-put-6-000-more-ford-jobs-at-risk-lfsx23p3t
the deluded isolationism of brexit is suicide in the modern world
How do you square the circle of continuing growth in vehicle production and the issues with the environment ? I can't see these two things being compatible.
I struggle to believe that £45k figure, a job review site claims £30k average for Ford production workers (although I totally accept there's likely a lot of skill involved in the job).
But yeah a really sad thing for all the workers and their families there, can't be many other opportunities in the vicinity (the company I work for is also a fairly big employer in the area and is looking at taking on some additional people even without a current job opening for them but it will be tiny numbers).
JLR already moved production of their new vehicles from the UK to Slovakia.
I know this because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law work for JLR and had to move their family out there.
JLR are only making 2 models at Nitra in Slovakia, not all their new models, this has been done to free capacity at Solihull to allow further UK produced models.
