Union fears for Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant

FEARS for the future of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant were raised by union leaders today as its parent company General Motors fought against the prospect of bankruptcy.Tony Woodley, Unite the Union joint general secretary and former Ellesmere Port union convener, warned that General Motors was “not too big to fail”.

COMMENT

I have mixed feelings about how useful being in a Trade Union can be for the employee (a Labour Party Union anyway). The most common, but by no means only, purpose of these organizations is maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment, supposedly. However as a child my on going memories of my father who was a member of the NUM for thirty years(National Union Miners) was strikes, strikes and more strikes, now the NUM is all but gone. Just recently my wife was working for a well known cracker firm in Aintree only to be laid off for cheaper "foreign" agency workers to be used while her Union looked the other way. So paying your weekly dues does not mean the Union will save you or look after your interests.

Tony Woodley is someone straight from the Arthur Scargill school of Union leaders who likes the sound of their own voice. He has been very verbal against the BNP trying to exclude BNP members from British Labour Party Unions and to basically cut the strings to their workers rights, a hypocrite of the highest order in my opinion. Its about time that British workers started thinking about themselves, Solidarity is a union for British people "representing British people" and most importantly has nothing to do with the Labour Party.

As much as Tony Woodley "pretends" to fear for the Vauxhall car plant, he is powerless to do anything about it just as Arthur Scargill was with the coal mining industry collapsing. What he does not have to fear though is about his future which looks rosey. While Unite members may lose their jobs in the next few months its going to be a good Christmas for him and this is something Tony Woodley will not fear about.

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