Posted: 6.31pm Tuesday 5 May 2009
Visteon dispute
Ford-Visteon car workers say 'We Won!'
Workers celebrate at the VIsteon plant in Enfield (Pic: Socialist Worker)
Car Giant Ford was last week forced to give a massive payout to Ford-Visteon workers at sites in Enfield, north London, Basildon in Essex and Belfast. The workers had been fighting the company since being sacked at the end of March. Ron Clark is a former Unite union shop steward at the plant in Enfield who worked for Ford for 21 years. He spoke to Socialist Worker about the workers’ victory
‘We set out to give Ford a bloody nose – and we did it.
The deal we won is only what we deserve, but it’s the way that we forced the company back that’s important.
There were just 600 of us. A small group of workers has pushed back a multinational company. We’ve shown that workers taking direct action makes a huge difference – and can win.
Up and down the country workers are losing their jobs. But hopefully they will see our action and our victory, and think that they can do something too.
I’ve spoken to people all over Britain and I get the feeling that workers have just had enough. I think our action has lifted the lid off something.
At first when we were sacked we left the plant in shock. A lot of people were in tears. But then the phones started going. We found out that the Belfast workers had stayed in and we were kicking ourselves.
But the next day we went back and occupied – and now we have won.
I think back now to the Woolworths workers where nearly 30,000 of them lost their jobs.
People often think they can’t do anything, but they can. We soon got organised. You learn as you go along.
We need to get as many people as we can to Birmingham for the march for jobs on 16 May. If it’s big it will lift people.
The bosses will try and drive down wages and take our jobs and they’ll use the credit crunch as an excuse. We need to stick together.
The bosses think that the working class is weak. We’ve shown it doesn’t have to be.’
The following should be read alongside this article:
» Victory at Visteon: ‘It’s been an unbelievable experience I’ll never forget’
» Were the workers led by donkeys?
» Visteon workers beat corporate car giant
» ‘The solidarity was electrifying’
» Belfast Visteon workers discuss the deal
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.
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