Anger as Bosch cuts 900 Welsh jobs

Unions and MPs protest at German firm's plan to shut factory at Miskin in 2011

Welsh politicians and trade union officials yesterday vowed to fight on to secure the best possible deal for 900 workers at Bosch's plant in Miskin, near Cardiff, amid anger over the German company's plans to close the factory.

Unite, the trade union that represents most of the workers at the factory, which makes alternators for the automotive sector, complained that Bosch had decided to shut the factory next year despite having been in detailed discussions with its representatives for four months over alternatives to closure.

"The workers are devastated that the closure of Bosch's Cardiff site has been recommended to the board," said Unite's regional officer David Lewis. "The company has not supported our proposals – this is a terrible blow to 900 workers and their families."

The union, which will hold a mass meeting of employees at Miskin today, is particularly disappointed that Bosch intends to transfer all of the plant's work to a similar operation in Hungary, rather than retaining a limited presence in South Wales that could be expanded once the economic situation improves.

Ieuan Wyn Jones, the deputy first minister of Wales, met with Bosch yesterday in an attempt to persuade the company to reconsider its closure of the Miskin plant, which was set up 20 years ago with the help of more than £20m of grants from the Welsh Development Agency.

"We have regularly met with senior representatives of the company and today I met them again to press the case for keeping the plant open," Mr Jones said. "Despite our efforts, we deeply regret that Bosch has come to this decision to proceed with the option to phase out production."

At its height, Bosch's Miskin plant employed about 1,500 workers but production had previously been scaled back as demand for its products slumped amid the worldwide downturn in the automotive sector.

Last October, the company said it was reviewing the plant's future and promised to consult staff about its proposals. Bosch is currently predicting a 65 per cent decline in sales this year of the components the factory makes.

Adam Willmott, the director of the plant, said Bosch had been left with little option but to shut down the factory in the face of that sort of slide in business, despite the company recognising the skilled nature of the workforce.

Mr Willmott added: "They have come to the conclusion that they need to consolidate production in Eastern Europe to really gain the economies of scale with other divisions in the same plants and, of course, labour costs there are 65 per cent lower."

The closure of the Miskin plant is a blow to the Welsh economy, which is particularly vulnerable to a manufacturing slowdown, but it will also unnerve other suppliers to the automotive sector throughout the UK. While Britain is now widely thought to have come out of recession during the final quarter of last year, car industry analysts are very nervous about the prospects for their sector this year as stimulus schemes come to an end.

Many European countries, including the UK, and the US, have sought to help car manufacturers with scrappage schemes, providing incentives to those who replace their old vehicles with new models. But these schemes are now coming to an end, prompting warnings that sales will fall back sharply once these incentives are no longer available.

Bumpy road: Wales modernises

Bosch's decision to close its Miskin plant is another blow to Wales's manufacturing sector, which accounts for around a fifth of the Principality's economy, twice the UK average. Though Wales has made great strides in diversifying its economy since the coal and steel sectors first began to struggle 30 years or so ago, the transformation has not yet been completed.

Welsh manufacturing was hit by a series of hefty job cuts last year, with Corus closing two plants and cutting jobs at several other works, Hoover shutting its factory in Merthyr Tydfil, and the automotive supply sector shedding many more posts throughout the south of the country.

However, the Welsh Assembly's interventionist approach has been credited with limiting some of the damage. It has offered wage and training subsidies for companies that have switched to short-time working, worth as much as £4,000 individually. The Assembly has also offered public money to companies moving into Wales, particularly in hi-tech sectors deemed to be less vulnerable to the economic ebb and flow.

The Airbus plant in Broughton, North Wales has received almost £30m in such grants and subsidies, while food and healthcare are also growing industries. Siemens, for instance, transferred work from the US to Wales last year.