tyre company redundancies

[tomestone]

Tte sad news of the redundancies at the wshington tyre company is another nail in the manufacturing coffin.

I do know that the workforce have accepted all the companys proposed cost cutting demands and other initiatives ,but the final words of how they cannot compete with the eastern block countries on wage bill costs,has left them and others questioning how will the uk workforces ever be able to compete.do we just wither and perish in the uk.(your thoughts)

[gary baldy]

We can only compete on quality really.
The trouble is that people are always looking for the least expensive option and quality is not often a priority.
The only real solution is to impose import bans which i think are illegal under European law.
Our manufacturing industry has shown that we can compete in the world market - our car factories are some of the most productive in the world nowadays - it is just with high capacity products such as tyres labour costs are always going to a factor.
We should perhaps concentrate on strengthing those industries in which we excel and sadly accept the fact that we are going to have to lose some others to foreign competition.
Very sad but depressingly inevitable.

[tomestone]

We need to adopt a statergy of a cost to exit,this will give employees some form of security in the knowledge that if a company decides to exit the uk,there is a cost attached.An example is of paid retraining ,enhanced redundancy packages ,50% paid wage whilst looking for alternative work.The cost to a company will be zero,they only inccur a cost if they move ,or relocate.

[JustSia]

A good few of my friends found out this morning that Dunlop was closing. Their lives turned up side down with just one phone call. I can't believe how easy it is for companies to wreck so many lives in the name of the profit. Washington is a small place with a lot of people relying on the factories around for work. And so many of them have been either closing or getting rid of people. I have no idea how people are gonna deal with this. It's a disgrace.

If the government is not prepared to deal with it then they better not complain about the rising number of unemployment and people claiming benefits.

S.

[buildersmate]

So what exactly are you proposing - the company runs at a loss with State handouts? I seem to remember something similar in the 1970s - called - er, British Leyland. Alternatively the next time you pop around to Quikfit for a new tyre, just say, I'll take that expensive Michelin tyre please, it'll keep British workers in a job. At a macro level that's what causes the problem.

I do not believe we can only compete on quality, we can also compete on knowledge/innovation. But this demands upskilling the workforce, something that we surely have to give create to Tony for seriously doing since 1997. Unfortunately this won't help manufacturing industry too much because the majority of innovations in manufactured products are generally focused at taking the need for labour out of the manufacturing process.

We can also compete on time (speed) - but only to an extent of producing fast-turnaround jobbing shop type products. It takes 6 weeks to bring a sea-container in from China.

[youngmafbog]

You cannot possibly consider tying international companies up. International companies are just that - international if you tie them in beaurocracy and red tape with expensive options they simply wont come and invest here in the first place. Same if you tax them out of existence - take note gordon!

I could just imagine the dole queues the day after that legislation was proposed.

It is a very sad fact though and I must admit I dont have an answer apart from the fact that the british workforce has to adopt. We can't be the only western nation to fall into this so perhaps we should all get together and work out a plan.

[Loosehead]

You just have to face the fact that western workers demand a much higher standard of living than their far eastern counterparts. In manufacturing you just cannot compete. The only way is protectionism ie socialism and look what happenned last time we tried that? Someone mentioned Leyland above, that was just one of many outfits being subsidised by the tax payer in order to maintain artificial jobs. Keeps the reds happy but screws the economy.

Forget manufacturing we are never going to be able to compete, concentrate on what we can compete at.

[tomestone]

-Typical;reds under the beds,socialist properganda,new labour.

manufacturing has a high skills ratio ,the point being that companys need to capture the skills for life and not for the short term needs.

Basic skills needs are accessable for free as a government lead programme,though time off to learn is not in the costings of companys.I agree that flexability of the working population is a must in the market place today however so is the skills needs of each person to apply themselfs to the changes.invest in the people is what i am saying when it becomes apparent that a company is about to re-locate,thats a cost worth taking.

[gary baldy]

Trying to ignore Loosehead tomestone - he has a picture a Margaret Thatcher in his wallet!

Although manufacturing has been decemated we still have a decent manufacturing industry just a lot smaller. We are world leaders in many areas and when such closures happen as a raging socialist i would of course say take them into state hands. (and tax the rich to pay for it!)

[tomestone]

Bang on garybaldy.i have spent many years as a convener,and in education on skills ,and have a first hand insight on the desperate plight of those who have, and those who have not,and those who want it to remain that way.good on you man.

[Loosehead]

You've been peeking Gary!

Once you tax the Rich, of which there are very few so in the then people on 30K become considered "Rich", they become poor,. Someone has to create wealth a fact that socialism always seems to over look.

[Loosehead]

sorry that's a bit garbled, you can see what I mean, Doh!

[gary baldy]

I'm talking of the Phillip Greens and John Caulfield's of this world who are mega rich yet avoid tax by putting it all in their wifes names or taking up dual residency.
These slime balls are profiting from the likes of me and you Loosehead (if you have a mobile phone or buy your clothes in Dorothy Perkins that is!) yet it is us working people who pay our taxes dilligently whilst these lot get away with it.

[Loosehead]

I take your point but even if you tax them 100% it won't pay for NHS for one week. It's drop in the ocean, taxing the rich just becomes an act of spite, it has no economic logic. In the end you have to hammer the middle earners if you want to tax the "rich". The point is whatever you think of the people you mention, they had the talent and vision to do it, they give thousands a living. Doesn't matter what system you use there will always be rich and poor, no amount of state tinkering will help that.

[youngmafbog]

Taxing the rich, ah yes I remember Labours last attempt at that, we lost most people and at teh same time managed to create a brain drain to other countries.

There are not many really rich people whats the point of scaring them off, they'll just take their wealth and companies elsewhere then we have no tax from them and no jobs for us workers. Dont forget that 90% * 0 = 0 !!!.

People have to learn that you have to get on your bike as Norman Tebbit once said. I have had to - and now have an uncomfortable journey coutesy of an antiquated and unreliable rail system. I dont enjoy it but I get on with it instead of whinging all the time. I could on the other hand have sat on mya*se and expected the state to support me but being a capitlist I wont do that. So now that I have bothered to do that why should I be penalised by high taxes to support those that can't be bothered, and I'm not rich by any means but the tax bands are kicking in lower and lower these days just to support these ideologies I'm seeing here.

[Loosehead]

couldn't have put it better myself YMB

[tomestone]

Why is it that we still have compays opposing the minimum wage,explain to me how on 5.60 an hour living with the same tax and cost off living that is fair,i know of polish and other foreign people coming over here to work,then going back when they realise that the cost of living and tax cripples their incomes.Their employers make substatial profits of their backs.normally these are outsourced utilities that have been contracted out of the companys enviroment.Where is the money going?

[Loosehead]

It's all supply and demand, market forces. The higher/rarer the skill the higher the pay. Life isn't fair, the world owes no one a living we come into the world with nowt and go out with nowt what you do in between decides how comfortable that time will be. No attempts by mankind have ever been sucessful at changing that.

[qapmoc]

Well people, get ready for a change in the way things are done now, if the predictions for ''peak oil'' within this decade is correct (and it looks more likely each year)then a few years after that point international trade is going to start dying off anyway as the scarcity of oil will drive the prices up to the level where globalisation will be a word from the past.

The problem is that by then, the UK generally may have already exported all of the knowledge and manufacturing capablilities to other countries.