26 June 1997 Edition
The joys of a global market
By Mary Nelis
The Derry City Partnership's widely acclaimed document outlining a vision for the city in the next 25 years was dropped through our letter boxes at the same time as United Technology dropped their bombshell, through a hired PR company, of the closure of their Blighshane plant in Derry after 27 years. On the same day Adam Ingram, the New Labour Minister, was in Belfast speaking at the ``Northern Ireland Exporter of the Year'' awards.
At a meeting with City Councillors and Union officials, Mr Ingram was told that the only thing being exported in Derry was the 600 jobs of the workers at United Technology car components plant in Creggan.
The announcement that the plant is to close and the jobs will relocate to Portugal and Spain, has caused bitter resentment and anger in the Creggan and Bogside areas of Derry. It is, after all, the only factory in this area of high unemployment and social disadvantage.
United Technology started life in Derry some twenty years ago, on the site of the old BSR factory. It was the major supplier of harnesses for Ford cars. Its workers were drawn from the catchment area of the Bogside and Creggan, where long term unemployment was the norm.
The decision by the company to locate in Creggan was welcomed with genuine joy by the people of the area. The factory began production at the height of the civil unrest in the city. On many occasions workers had literally to crawl into the factory through clouds of CS gas, tanks, guns, checkpoints and searches.
It is a tribute to the workers that the factory survived the worst effect of the early years of British army occupation of the Creggan and Bogside, which threw a ring of military steel around the areas.
The workers gave the best years of their lives and their skills to United Technology. The opportunity to work, whether that work is meaningful or not, is highly prized in Derry and Derry workers are constantly praised by employers for their dedication and loyalty to the company.
United Technology workers were no exception. They gave their best but their best was not good enough for a company whose only concern was expanding profits and business into the cheaper production areas of Europe. The poor and the unemployed of Portugal and Spain will certainly welcome the work stolen from the poor and unemployed of Derry, who by their sweat and hard labour made the company a huge yearly profit.
In 1990 Councillor Mitchel McLaughlin warned that British government claims of economic and political advancement when European trade barriers were removed was out of touch with reality. He stated then that the changes would cause increased factory closure and severe disadvantage for the Six County economy. The closure of its plant by UT, to relocate to the more profitable worker killing fields of the poorer European countries, is only the beginning of a major transitional process by US global corporations.
This experience is nothing new to Derry. Many of those employed at UT were former workers of the BSR, which was the first company to locate on the site.
The BSR, headed by autocrat Dr McDonald, who became a millionaire on the backs of Derry workers, closed abruptly in 1960. It gave employment for a number of years to the men of Derry, who traditionally all their lives took the boat to England for work.
When the factory closed, having allegedly put millions into the Swiss bank account of McDonald, there was an atmosphere of near despair in the city. The legacy of the BSR experience would later find its way onto the streets of Derry in the Civil Rights Movement and the demand for equality in employment. Derry workers then indicated that they were no longer prepared to be exploited to profit the rich.
The same feelings of exploitation and bitterness were expressed by the workers of United Technology over the past three years. It is obvious, in retrospect, to see that the decision to relocate the factory was taken as far back as 1994.
The company had laid off some 400 workers over the past three years and was threatening the remaining workforce with demands for more production at less money. In an unprecedented move, the 500 workers signed a letter to The Derry Journal outlining their concerns that UT were already engaged in a rundown of the factory. The workers said that ``on the recommendation of the AEEU we have already given up a lot in order to save jobs at the plant. In the past six months, we have watched management allow five lines of Citreon production to disappear from the factory''.
United Technology has taken £2m in government subsidies and the profits acquired by the sweat of Derry workers. We have learned once again that the answer to unemployment and poverty, will not be found in multinationals or global corporations. Tax breaks and grants given as inducements to these companies, would yield better returns if invested in the local economy.
The Derry City Partnership's widely acclaimed document outlining a vision for the city in the next 25 years was dropped through our letter boxes at the same time as United Technology dropped their bombshell, through a hired PR company, of the closure of their Blighshane plant in Derry after 27 years. On the same day Adam Ingram, the New Labour Minister, was in Belfast speaking at the ``Northern Ireland Exporter of the Year'' awards.
At a meeting with City Councillors and Union officials, Mr Ingram was told that the only thing being exported in Derry was the 600 jobs of the workers at United Technology car components plant in Creggan.
The announcement that the plant is to close and the jobs will relocate to Portugal and Spain, has caused bitter resentment and anger in the Creggan and Bogside areas of Derry. It is, after all, the only factory in this area of high unemployment and social disadvantage.
United Technology started life in Derry some twenty years ago, on the site of the old BSR factory. It was the major supplier of harnesses for Ford cars. Its workers were drawn from the catchment area of the Bogside and Creggan, where long term unemployment was the norm.
The decision by the company to locate in Creggan was welcomed with genuine joy by the people of the area. The factory began production at the height of the civil unrest in the city. On many occasions workers had literally to crawl into the factory through clouds of CS gas, tanks, guns, checkpoints and searches.
It is a tribute to the workers that the factory survived the worst effect of the early years of British army occupation of the Creggan and Bogside, which threw a ring of military steel around the areas.
The workers gave the best years of their lives and their skills to United Technology. The opportunity to work, whether that work is meaningful or not, is highly prized in Derry and Derry workers are constantly praised by employers for their dedication and loyalty to the company.
United Technology workers were no exception. They gave their best but their best was not good enough for a company whose only concern was expanding profits and business into the cheaper production areas of Europe. The poor and the unemployed of Portugal and Spain will certainly welcome the work stolen from the poor and unemployed of Derry, who by their sweat and hard labour made the company a huge yearly profit.
In 1990 Councillor Mitchel McLaughlin warned that British government claims of economic and political advancement when European trade barriers were removed was out of touch with reality. He stated then that the changes would cause increased factory closure and severe disadvantage for the Six County economy. The closure of its plant by UT, to relocate to the more profitable worker killing fields of the poorer European countries, is only the beginning of a major transitional process by US global corporations.
This experience is nothing new to Derry. Many of those employed at UT were former workers of the BSR, which was the first company to locate on the site.
The BSR, headed by autocrat Dr McDonald, who became a millionaire on the backs of Derry workers, closed abruptly in 1960. It gave employment for a number of years to the men of Derry, who traditionally all their lives took the boat to England for work.
When the factory closed, having allegedly put millions into the Swiss bank account of McDonald, there was an atmosphere of near despair in the city. The legacy of the BSR experience would later find its way onto the streets of Derry in the Civil Rights Movement and the demand for equality in employment. Derry workers then indicated that they were no longer prepared to be exploited to profit the rich.
The same feelings of exploitation and bitterness were expressed by the workers of United Technology over the past three years. It is obvious, in retrospect, to see that the decision to relocate the factory was taken as far back as 1994.
The company had laid off some 400 workers over the past three years and was threatening the remaining workforce with demands for more production at less money. In an unprecedented move, the 500 workers signed a letter to The Derry Journal outlining their concerns that UT were already engaged in a rundown of the factory. The workers said that ``on the recommendation of the AEEU we have already given up a lot in order to save jobs at the plant. In the past six months, we have watched management allow five lines of Citreon production to disappear from the factory''.
United Technology has taken £2m in government subsidies and the profits acquired by the sweat of Derry workers. We have learned once again that the answer to unemployment and poverty, will not be found in multinationals or global corporations. Tax breaks and grants given as inducements to these companies, would yield better returns if invested in the local economy.