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BMW CULL: Protest demo planned for Tuesday night

6:40am Tuesday 24th February 2009 in News

PLANS to organise a demonstration in Oxford over job cuts at BMW will be discussed a meeting in the Town Hall tonight.

Unions representing workers at both the Cowley plant and Royal Mail’s distribution centre in Cowley, where hundreds of jobs are set to shift to Swindon in the summer, have called the meeting, called ‘Jobs and Justice: Put People First’. It starts at 7pm.

Bill MacKeith, assistant secretary of the Oxford & District Trades Union Council, said workers would have the chance to speak from the floor after union representatives had made speeches.

He said: “The idea is to give support to workers at BMW, those still there and those who have been sacked.”

Mr MacKeith also confirmed a city centre demonstration was planned for Saturday, March 7.

Last week BMW announced 850 agency workers were being laid off because of the slump in Mini sales.

Comments(10)

The Voice of Truth says...
7:00am Tue 24 Feb 09

Why bother. It is a complete waste of time. Long gone are the days when everybody would support everybody else and now its the 'I'm allright Jack' mentality. Yeah I would probably rather look out for myself and my family but only because I know when it came to supporting me I would be on my own. BMW don't give a toss how much people jump up and down now, they will do what they want when they want and the government has proved how much British manufacturing jobs are worth with LDV - NOTHING. Banks and jobs for the boys are different they will be protected at all costs but normal citizens forget it, everybody is on their own. Why is Andrew Smith not jumping up and down like a lunatic - these are the people who will ultimatley be responsible for him signing on soon although you can guarantee he will be looked after. How long is it he gets an MP's wage for after he looses the seat ? BMW workers get sacked and they owe the company money - strange that.

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Bogota Bob says...
10:36am Tue 24 Feb 09

Solidarity of the brothers has long gone, its a dog eat dog world and everyone looks after themselves.

The full time works wouldnt support the agency workers because they know if BMW doesnt save money, it will end up cutting more shifts or closing the factory down for longer periods, or just closing it for good. Therefore they voted to get rid of the agency staff to keep themselves safe and to protect their own income and future.


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miniorbust says...
11:03am Tue 24 Feb 09

Bogota Bob wrote:
Solidarity of the brothers has long gone, its a dog eat dog world and everyone looks after themselves. The full time works wouldnt support the agency workers because they know if BMW doesnt save money, it will end up cutting more shifts or closing the factory down for longer periods, or just closing it for good. Therefore they voted to get rid of the agency staff to keep themselves safe and to protect their own income and future.
we never voted for anything apart from a paydeal i think bernard moss voted for us

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MichaelOx4 says...
1:13pm Tue 24 Feb 09

These idiots signed up for TEMPORARY jobs, maybe a lot of them couldnt understand English when they saw the vacancy in the first place? When I was looking for work I wasnt interested in Temping becasue they can get rid of you whenever they like, hence the word TEMPORARY. I have sympathy for those who are out there desperately looking for another job like all of them should be but none whatsoever for the fools who will be out there waving banners & shouting their mouth off about how unfairly treated they've been. If any employer really did UNFAIRLY dismiss 850 people they would be in financial ruin, they would be liable for prosecution by all of the 850 TEMPS.
GET OUT THERE & STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELVES & TRY TO GET A JOB, THIS TIME, LOOK FOR THE WORD PERMANENT!

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rickenback says...
2:00pm Tue 24 Feb 09

protest?about what paying the useless union? gov should try to get some brits back working .blair blair blair ..woodley b spending your money .

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rickenback says...
2:18pm Tue 24 Feb 09

i hope bmw look after the guys that have been there ,through change 20,30 years..without that infersructure with there skill ..bmw wouldnt have done it..fact!unions will look after them .i hope.

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rickenback says...
2:28pm Tue 24 Feb 09

done agency,phone to say go,record num ..about your only comeback ,hoodwinked union member maybe?get the boat readly gordon?

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rickenback says...
3:05pm Tue 24 Feb 09

i hope with the ero with the pound ,sales abroad soar ..uk allways had a model awaiting ,should employ more brits?ex rolls boys ...must yarn? 25-35 years..i hope they look after .if not i will rant!!! any german fruitpickers?

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BigAlan says...
7:55pm Tue 24 Feb 09

Rickenback, its English we write and speak here, not some sort of dialect nobody has ever heard of, oh and a quick once over with regard to the spelling might be a good idea.

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AlexF says...
12:30pm Wed 25 Feb 09

Rickenback, the agency workers signed up WITH A VIEW to go permanent, it's not our fault some managers fiddled their mates in before decent hard workers, it's not our fault the union and managers are corrupt and don't know how to do their jobs properly.
Something tells me you are here to slate the agency workers before you actually know the situation, some of them have been there 5+ years and are very good workers, with exemplary attendance and disciplinary records, now have some decorum about yourself, don't be so judgemental about a situation and people you obviously know nothing about.

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