Angry Mini workers pelted union leaders with fruit after 850 jobs were axed and all weekend shifts scrapped
Union sources said workers had thrown fruit at managers but BMW denied the claim. A spokesman said: "No BMW managers addressed the workers. I have confirmation that the fruit was thrown at union representatives."
Union representatives were shown on mobile phones being abused by disgruntled workers who accused them of not doing enough to prevent job losses.
All those axed were temporary workers contracted by Manpower, the employment organisation, for the Cowley work.
BMW faced heavy criticism from union leaders over the way it had handled the redundancies. Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “The manner in which these cuts were announced today was disgraceful. Sacking an entire shift like this and targeting agency workers who have no rights to redundancy pay, is blatant opportunism on BMW’s part and nothing short of scandalous.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said: "This is very disappointing news and all I can say really is the Government is doing and will do all that we can to help those affected."
The spokesman added that a rescue package for the car industry which was announced recently was still being implemented.
BMW's Swindon plant, which produces Mini body panels and employs 1,000, is not affected by the cutback but 150 workers have been asked to transfer to the Cowley production line.
The BMW engine plant at Hams Hall also escape cuts. The plant, employing 1,000 workers, produces 300,000 engines a year for the Mini and BMW cars in Germany.
The cuts come as the company stops producing cars at the Cowley factory for a week in response to falling motor sales caused by the recession.
Production will not restart production until February 23, with all staff at the factory, including remaining agency workers, being paid their basic wages during the closure.
A Mini spokesperson confirmed that the company had held discussions with Unite union representatives over changes to shift patterns at the plant.
A statement said: "While Mini has been weathering the economic downturn, it is not immune from the challenges of the current situation.
"Against this backdrop the company felt that a review of its shift patterns was necessary. This decision has not been taken lightly. The plant's union representatives have, of course, been involved in the discussions."
The company's 4,500 staff had returned to work on January 5 after an extended four-week Christmas holiday. In December, 300 agency staff were told there would be no more work for them at the plant after the Christmas holiday.
Derek Simpson, joint leader of the union Unite, said the cuts at Mini showed how the recession was affecting the industry, as BMW was a "hugely profitable" firm and Cowley was an efficient factory.
"There is a huge onus on the Government to take drastic action to support the motor industry and to encourage people to buy cars.
The announcement is more grim news to the car industry which has laid off thousands of workers in recent weeks.
The Mini celebrates its 50th anniversary in August of this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/4639628/Angry-Mini-workers-hurl-fruit-at-union-leaders-after-job-cuts.html
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Someone has just tried to post the link to this website on here, we have deleted it. WARNING 2008 list online WTF is going on at the BNP ? ...
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We know who these "agency workers" are do we not,one thing is for sure the workers must get these parasitic unions off thier backs,otherwise they will continue to be cheated of what is rightfully thiers.Workers who do you think finances the labour/marxist party while it destroys all of your employment prospects?
I'd be throwing more than fruit if it was me!
Have you seen what the ANTIFA cunts have been up to
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It may be over 6 months since the fascist British National Party held their most recent 'Red, White & Blue' rally, but it's not been forgotten.
In 2007 the fascist British National Party moved their annual ‘Red, White & Blue’ shindig to the small village of Codnor in Derbyshire. The event was held on private land owned by BNP member Alan Warner, but was unwelcome by his neighbours. The BNP ignored their objections, and Warner’s neighbours were forced to endure the spectacle of a fascist rally in their previously quiet village. During the event, and for over a month afterwards, villagers had to contend with gangs of drunken thugs loudly singing Nazi drinking songs, swaggering round their village sieg-heiling. They had to put up with BNP scum using their gardens as toilets, vomiting in the hedgerows, and making noise at all hours of the day and night.
In 2008, and again despite widespread local opposition, the ‘RWB’ returned to Codnor. This time though, Antifa mobilised to oppose it. The threat of militant action by antifascists caused the police to oppose the BNP’s drinks licence for the event, and led to strict conditions being opposed upon the event.The mobilisation also meant that this year the fascists were ‘confined to camp’, but the village was swamped by a huge police operation, as the cops sought to protect the BNP from militant antifascists. Over 30 people were arrested opposing the event.
Antifa has caused the BNP, and Alan Warner, to think twice about holding their fascist rally in Derbyshire again, but they have not abandoned the event altogether. This year it looks as if Essex will be unlucky enough to host the BNP, and local people can expect to have to endure what the villagers of Codnor had to contend with.
David Shapcott lives in a quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of Burnley. The only busy period of the day is the school-run, when local parents drop off or collect their young children from the local school. It is Shapcott who organises the BNP’s annual rally. While he lives in peace and quiet, he brings mayhem to the lives of others, and helps to stir up hatred against the ethnic minorities he probably rarely even sees.
No doubt Shapcott generally sleeps soundly in his bed at 6 The Spinney. There are no thugs goose-stepping up and down his street or singing ‘The Horst Vessel’. In the early hours of this morning (Tuesday 17th February) however, Shapcott was given a very small taste of what those unfortunate enough to live near a ‘RWB’ site have to contend with – as were those who currently have him as a neighbour. At around 2.30am the peace of The Spinney was shattered by the activation of a dozen personal attack alarms deposited close to Shapcott’s house. The devices are loud, long-lasting, and would have been very difficult to locate and silence.
Posters put up on The Spinney and on surrounding streets read as follows:
“SORRY TO WAKE YOU UP!
“At least you’ve not been woken to the sound of Nazi drinking songs, the noise of people having sex on your front lawn, or groups of drunken yobs using your garden as a toilet.
“For the past 2 years the people of the small village of Codnor in Derbyshire have had to put up with this, and worse, for weeks at a time – Thanks to your fascist neighbour, David Shapcott of 6 The Spinney, who organises the British National Party’s annual ‘Red, White, & Blue’ rally.
“They don’t want him and his fascist thugs back. Nor do others want the BNP in their backyards. Do you?”
David Shapcott may not be quite as unpopular on The Spiiney today as he is in the village of Codnor, but his neighbours may now have an idea of who he is and what he is responsible for. Who knows what will happen on The Spinney next.
It may be more than 6 months since the last ‘RWB’, but Antifa have not forgotten.
The Balti Kings
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/02/422286.html
HOW MANY OF THE BRITISH WORKFORCE EASILY TOOK THE WAGES OF FOREIGNER OWNED COMPANY'S THINKING THEY STILL HAD A JOB FOR LIFE ,AND ARE NOW RUING THEY DAY THAT THEY PUT THEIR BLIND FAITH IN THE UNION.
The unions had stopped taking an interest in British workers jobs years ago but the men and women who still payed the union due's could not see the wood for the pay packet at the end of the week.
The classic example was Arthur scargill who lost the strike for the miners by allowing polish coal to be off loaded at the docks as the docks should have been his first line of defense.
The working class can kiss my arse,
I've got the foremans' job at last.
I'm out of work and on the dole,
You can stuff the red flag up your hole.
The working class can kiss my arse,
I've got the foremans' job at last.
'Twas on Gibraltors rocks so fair,
I saw a maiden lying there,
And as she lay in sweet repose,
A puff of wind blew up her clothes.
The working class can kiss my arse,
I've got the foremans' job at last.
A sailor who was passing by,
Tipped his hat and winked his eye,
And then he saw to his despair,
She had the red flag flying there.
The working class can kiss my arse,
I've got the foremans' job at last.
Count Almsay.
HOW MANY OF THE BRITISH WORKFORCE EASILY TOOK THE WAGES OF FOREIGNER OWNED COMPANY'S THINKING THEY STILL HAD A JOB FOR LIFE ,AND ARE NOW RUING THEY DAY THAT THEY PUT THEIR BLIND FAITH IN THE UNION.
The unions had stopped taking an interest in British workers jobs years ago but the men and women who still payed the union due's could not see the wood for the pay packet at the end of the week.
The classic example was Arthur scargill who lost the strike for the miners by allowing polish coal to be off loaded at the docks as the docks should have been his first line of defense.
keith axon
Any worker paying Union dues must be thick as shit because it's their Union dues that helped, together with blatant-in-your-face Tory sleeze, to get Labour elected, the same cunts, along with the Tories and Lib-dims, who's self-serving policies are responsible for this finacial destruction of Britain and the wholesale loss of British workers' jobs.
British workers should make wind-chimes of the cunts running and milking Unite, TUC, CWU, TGW, and all the other trade unions.
Should the BNP gain power we'll have that bloke who used to make hanging gallows, back in business again - I cant think of seeing anything better than a puppet trade union boss and his string-pulling Labour politician hanging together, side by side, at the end of length of strong hemp rope.
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