George B on Sat 04, April 2009 @ 22:18

George B — 2009-04-04 22:18:46

The sun shone brightly over the bleak industrial estate in Ponders End, north London, as scores of trade unionists, leftists and family members gathered for a rally at the Visteon plant, which remains occupied by more than 100 workers, who were summarily sacked on Tuesday 31 March with less than a hour's notice.

The workers are among some 560 Visteon employees spread between the north London factory and sites in Basildon, Essex and West Belfast, where the mini-wave of occupations began. The mood was both buoyant and determined among the occupiers with the plant's UNITE union convenor, Kevin Nolan, declaring to the crowd that 'It's time that the workers of this country said to the Government and the big corporations that enough is enough'.

Nolan faces the possibility of a jail sentence on Monday morning (06 April) when he is due to appear in the High Court as a named individual defying an injunction obtained by KPMG, the accountancy giant, acting as administrators for the supposedly bankrupt Visteon UK. In response, the United Left in UNITE has called a demonstration outside the Court in London's Strand (nearest tubes: Holborn and Temple) from 9.45 AM on Monday.

The occupiers who spoke to me made it plain that they were fighting to save jobs rather than to win improved redundancy payments, contrary to what much of the media coverage has suggested. Meanwhile, UNITE's joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, is apparently headed to Detroit to meet with senior Ford Motor Co management and is quite clearly looking for nothing more than an enhanced compensation package.

I understand that a delegation of Visteon workers went to the Fords complex in Dagenham on Friday in the hope of winning some form of solidarity action, but I have no details of the response from workers there. The bulk of Visteon production appears to have gone to Land Rover and Jaguar facilities.

Email messages of support to steve.hart@unitetheunion.com

The factory is located just a few minutes by foot from Ponders End rail station, which is on the line from Liverpool Street (via Tottenham Hale) to Hertford East.

Permanent Revolution

George B on Sat 04, April 2009 @ 22:18