-
L’annuncio della Ford Australia del 3 Novembre del
taglio di 640 posti di lavoro permanenti a Victoria ha smascherato la pretesa
dello stato e del governo federale di aver creato “sviluppo economico” e
“miglioramento dei posti di lavoro”.
I tagli negli impieghi coinvolgono il 10 % di 5500 lavoratori
a Broadmeadows e Geelong, vicino Melbourne. Oltre al taglio di 450 posti di
operai e di 190 di impiegati entro la fine dell’anno, la Ford distruggerà 150
contratti di lavoro e reimpiegherà 200 lavoratori in altre aree. -
Broadmeadows ha un tasso di disoccupazione del 13,4
%, molto più alto di quello nazionale del 4,8 %. -
Il governo Howard, insieme al governo Labor, ha già
presidiato nell’ultima decade alla distruzione di decine di migliaia di posti
di lavoro manifatturieri.
A Maggio il governo Howard ha
annunciato un sussidio
di 52,5 milioni $ alla Ford per una struttura di ricerca e sviluppo a Victoria.
Altri 50 000 posti di lavoro manifatturieri saranno
distrutti nei prossimi 12 mesi. -
§
La decisione della Ford indica la sua volontà di
far di tutto per fornire assistenza alle maggiori società e ai maggiori
investitori alle spese dei posti di lavoro e della condizione della classe
lavoratrice.
La Ford incolpa degli ultimi tagli sui posti di
lavoro un crollo delle vendite dei veicoli più grandi, dovuto all’aumento del
prezzo del petrolio. La decisione ha seguito un rapporto della compagnia che
mostrava un declino sul reddito annuale, il primo in 5 anni, del 2,5 % fino a
3,89 miliardi $ e una caduta del 4,4% delle vendite di veicoli, fino a 129,200
automobili e autocarri.
La diminuzione delle vendite potrebbe essere la
giustificazione immediata, ma i tagli della Ford Australia sono parte di una
vasta ristrutturazione in corso della compagnia e dell’industria automobilistica
a livello internazionale.
La sua società madre ha annunciato piani in
Settembre per tagliare 44 000 posti e chiudere 16 fabbriche negli Usa.
Ford Australia ha annunciato in Ottobre che intende
ridurre la produzione giornaliera da 450 a 360 veicoli entro il 20 Novembre. -
La compagnia è intenta a ramming through i tagli dei posti di lavoro il
più velocemente possibile e a usare l’opportunità di costringere i lavoratori
rimasti a incrementare la produttività e a tagliare i costi perfino nella vana
speranza di assicurarsi il posto. Senza dubbio anche il periodo prima di Natale
non è stato casuale essendo i lavoratori sotto pressione finanziaria, non
intenzionati a scioperare. -
Né i Labor né i sindacati hanno proferito parola
riguardo ai tagli, per quanto fossero al corrente dei piani della compagnia.
Il Tesoriere dello stato John Brumby si è rivolto
alla forza lavoro rimanente assicurando che “la Ford è fiduciosa nella sua
posizione di medio termine nel mercato”, e dichiara “ L’investimento da 1,8
miliardi $ da parte della Ford nei prossimi 10 anni assicurerà la Ford in questo
Stato oltre a fornire maggiore sicurezza agli attuali 5000 lavoratori della
compagnia di Victoria.”
Il Sindacato dei Lavoratori
Manifatturieri Australiani (AMWU) ha giocato anch’esso un ruolo disgustoso; il
segretario della divisione vehicle
dell’AMWU Ian Jones che ha minimizzato la possibilità di maggiori perdite di
posti di lavoro. -
WSWS: l’AMWU
collaborerà con la Ford per sopprimere ogni resistenza, la sua maggiore
preoccupazione è quella di mantenere la sua posizione come ausiliaria a quella
della direzione sulla strada della produttività e del profitto. E’ inoltre
intenzionato a fare in modo che la questione non crei imbarazzi al partito
Labor in vista delle prossime elezioni.
Infatti l’AMWU giustifica la decisione della Ford in
quanto dovuta alla “pressione dalla globalizzazione”.
In realtà la globalizzazione ha posto le basi per un
economia pianificata razionalmente che potrebbe migliorare la vita di tutti.
Le società globali come Ford vanno alla ricerca di
fonti di lavoro a basso costo (con l’aiuto di governo e sindacato), mettono i
lavoratori uno contro l’altro, fanno di tutto per tagliare i costi e aumentare
i profitti. -
L’impatto della distruzione di
posti di lavoro e il freno alla produzione avrà effetto non solo sui lavoratori della
Ford a Broadmeadows e Geelong ma sui rifornimenti, sui pezzi di manifattura e sulle comunità più vaste.
The Bracks
government and unions help Ford
Australia axe
jobs
By Will
Marshall, Socialist Equality Party candidate for Broadmeadows
10 November 6
Ford Australia’s announcement on
November 3 that it will axe 640 permanent jobs in Victoria has
exposed the fraudulent claims by state and federal governments to have created
“economic development” and a “jobs recovery”.
The job cuts represent 10 percent of
the company’s 5,500-strong workforce at its plants in Broadmeadows and Geelong,
near Melbourne. As well as slashing 450 blue-collar and 190 white-collar jobs
by the end of the year, Ford will destroy 150 contract jobs and redeploy 200
employees to other areas.
Coming
just before Christmas, the decision is not only a terrible blow to Ford workers
and their families, but will compound the social crisis in the neighbouring
working class suburbs. Broadmeadows
has an official jobless rate of 13.4 percent, far higher that the national rate
of 4.8 percent.
The Howard government in Canberra, in
partnership with state Labor governments, has already presided over the
destruction of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs over the past decade.
Another 50,000 manufacturing jobs are expected to be destroyed over the next 12
months. The
only “jobs growth” has been in the vast expansion of poorly-paid, part-time and
casual positions.
In
Victoria, Labor Premier Steve Bracks has been at the forefront, living up to
his promise of heading a “business-friendly” government. The Ford decision has
demonstrated what this means: bending over backward to provide assistance to major
corporations and investors at the expense of the jobs and living standards of
ordinary working people.
While
public schools, health care and other facilities in working class areas like
Broadmeadows are starved of funds, the federal and state governments have
handed out billions of dollars in business tax cuts and financial incentives. In May, the Howard government
announced a $52.5 million hand-out to Ford for a research and development
facility in Victoria. Bracks promised to match Canberra dollar for
dollar.
Ford blamed the latest round of jobs
cuts on a slump in sales of larger vehicles due to high petrol prices. The
decision followed a company report showing a decline in annual revenue, the
first in five years, by 2.5 percent to $3.89 billion and a 4.4 percent fall in
vehicle sales to 129,200 cars and trucks.
The sales downturn may be the immediate
pretext, but the Ford Australia cutback is part of a vast ongoing restructuring
of the company and the auto industry internationally. Ford, a huge global
corporation, plans and organises its production for the international market,
of which Australia is one small component. Its parent company announced plans in September to wipe
out 44,000 jobs and close 16 plants in the US.
Clearly
a move in Australia has been under discussion for some time. Ford Australia announced in
October that it intended to reduce daily output from 450 to 360 vehicles by
November 20. Company president Tom Gorman told the Australian that Ford would not “be able to avoid right-sizing… if
demand doesn’t pick up”. He claimed Ford was “working through all our
alternatives” and “would not be taking a slash and burn mentality”.
The
workforce, however, has been deliberately kept in the dark. Ford is intent on ramming through
the job cuts as quickly as possible and using the opportunity to bludgeon the
remaining employees into boosting productivity and cutting costs even further
in the vain hope of securing their jobs. No doubt the choice of the
pre-Christmas period was also deliberate, with workers under financial pressure
not to take industrial action.
Above
all, Ford is relying, as on previous occasions, on the assistance of the Bracks
government and the trade unions to implement this “right-sizing” with as little
disruption as possible. Neither
Labor nor the unions breathed a word about the impending job cuts, even though
they were aware of the company’s plans.
State Treasurer John Brumby represents the Broadmeadows
electorate in parliament, but issued no warning and has no intention of trying
to prevent the job losses. On the contrary, he assured the remaining workforce: “Ford is in a strong
position going forward. They’ve committed to $1.7 billion worth of new
investment… Ford is very confident of their medium-term position in the
market.” Workers should treat these comments with the disdain they
deserve.
In
May, Bracks visited the Ford Broadmeadows plant, hailing the bright prospects
for employees and local suppliers of Ford’s new research and development
projects. Sounding like a company spokesman, he declared: “The $1.8 billion investment by Ford over
the next 10 years will secure Ford in this state as well as provide enhanced
security for the company’s current 5,000 workers in Victoria.”
The Australian Manufacturing Workers
Union (AMWU) has also played a disgusting role. Responding to Ford’s announcement in
October, AMWU vehicle
division federal secretary Ian Jones played down the
possibility of major job losses. “It hasn’t been determined that there
need be any jobs cuts… some voluntary redundancies are likely but we’ll be
working to see that anyone who needs a job can keep a job.”
Not
surprisingly, following the Ford announcement, the union has announced no
campaign to defend jobs, even though job losses may well be pending at other
car plants. Significantly Toyota recently announced a 22 percent drop in
earnings.
As
in every other case, the
AMWU will collaborate with Ford management in suppressing any resistance and
ensuring workers are out the door as smoothly as possible. The union
leadership’s main concern is to retain its place as an auxiliary of management
in the continual drive for productivity and profits. It is also anxious to
ensure that the issue does not become an embarrassment for Labor prior to the November
25 state election.
Commenting
on Ford’s decision, AMWU
national secretary Doug Cameron stated: “It’s quite clear that the car industry
in Australia is under particular pressure, it’s under pressure from
globalisation… it’s under pressure because of the logistics and structure of
the industry.” As for auto workers whose jobs are going or under threat,
his only answer was: “There needs to be more innovation.”
It
is not the lack of “innovation” that around the world is destroying millions of
manufacturing jobs, closing plants and laying waste the productive
forces—including the most essential of all, the working class. The source of
the crisis lies in the anarchic operation of the capitalist system, in which
production is carried out solely to generate massive corporate profits, not to
meet needs of working people.
Cameron declares that “globalisation”
is the problem. But the globalisation of production—based on extraordinary
“innovations” in science, technology and productive technique—has established the objective
basis for a rationally-planned world economy that could dramatically improve
the lives of all.
Under
capitalism, however, and the constraints of private profit and the nation-state
system, the opposite has taken place. Giant global corporations like Ford scour the globe for
ever-cheaper sources of labour, and aided by the government and trade unions,
pit workers in one country against those in other countries in a relentless
drive to cut labour costs and boost profits.
Ford,
the unions and the Bracks government present the jobs losses as inevitable so
as to pressure workers into accepting voluntary redundancies. But they are only
inevitable if workers accept the profit system as a permanent and unassailable
reality and do not challenge the prerogatives of management. The destruction of jobs and
winding back of production will have an impact not just on Ford workers in
Broadmeadows and Geelong but on suppliers and parts manufacturers and in the
broader community.
It
is time to take a stand. Ford workers should reject voluntary redundancies and
wage a campaign to defend all jobs. Selling off jobs via redundancy packages
has far-reaching consequences. First, it immediately undermines the position of
workers in other car plants and industries confronting job losses. Second, it
has a long-term impact on the future of youth. The fact that young people in
Broadmeadows and other working class suburbs face a life of unemployment and
dead-end jobs is a direct consequence of the demolition of permanent jobs in
factories like Ford, facilitated by the unions through redundancy payouts.
A
first step in opposing Ford’s plans is to organise meetings of workers to map
out a campaign against the job cuts. This will necessarily involve reaching out
to workers in other vehicle plants, in parts manufacturers and right across the
manufacturing industry, all of whom are facing the same attacks. Such a
campaign will inevitably involve a political struggle against Ford management,
the Bracks government and the trade unions.
A
stand by Ford workers would resonate throughout the working class, not only in
Victoria and Australia, but in the US and internationally, where jobs and
livelihoods are also being savaged. What is needed is a new perspective and a
new mass party to unify workers around the world to fight for the
reconstruction of society to meet the needs of working people, not those of the
corporate elite.
The
Socialist Equality Party is standing in the Victorian state election to fight
for this socialist and internationalist perspective. We urge all workers and
young people to study our program, attend our election meetings and participate
in our campaign.