Uproar in Cowley as BMW confirms 850 job cuts at Mini factory

• Weekend working to end from 2 March
• Agency workers given just one hour's notice of redundancies
Comments (88)

• Terry Macalister and Helen Pidd
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 February 2009 09.51 GMT
• Article history

A man walks past a Mini sign at the BMW car plant in Cowley, Oxford on the day 850 job losses were announced. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

There was anger today as BMW confirmed that 850 jobs were being cut by ending weekend working at its Mini car plant near Oxford.
The cuts will mostly affect agency workers when they come into force from 2 March when the plant begins operating five days a week, instead of the current seven.
Union sources said workers booed and threw apples and oranges at managers after being told they were losing their jobs.
Agency workers leaving Cowley this morning expressed their fury at being given just one hour's notice of the redundancies.
"It's a disgrace. I feel as though I've been used," said one worker. "We should have been given one month's notice, not one hour."
Axed agency staff were given the grim news in meetings at the factory following weekend speculation that hundreds of jobs were to go.
Almost a third of the Cowley workforce are agency staff and some complained today they would not receive any redundancy pay.
The contract staff, who have few employment rights, were brought in to work alongside full-time employees on the production lines, which built 230,000 vehicles last year.
Tony Woodley, the joint leader of the Unite union, said: "The manner in which these cuts were announced today was disgraceful. It is tough enough for workers in those car companies who have seen their market collapse in recent months, but BMW makes a top-selling product in the Mini and owed it to staff to treat them better.
"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.
"BMW's parent company couldn't attempt this in Germany because it would be illegal to do so. It is a disgrace, therefore, that workers in this country can be so casually thrown to the dole.
"We will be seeking to meet with the company as soon as possible to fight back against these needless cuts. We will also be keeping up the pressure on our government to do more to protect jobs in this country.
"We've been warning since last autumn that they need to do more, and do more strategically, including funding short-term working, or there will be a jobs carnage in our car industry."
The German-owned group said staff who worked weekends at the Cowley facility would be redeployed to one of the weekday shifts.
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."
Talks between BMW and unions have been held for weeks over changing the current work pattern in which three shifts are worked seven days a week.
The Cowley factory will not produce cars this week in response to the dip in motor sales caused by the recession. The marque, owned by BMW of Germany, saw global sales increase slightly last year, only to drop 35% in January.
The move to reduce output and cut 850 out of 4,500 employees will also affect dozens of supply firms and thousands of their staff who depend on Mini.
The announcement is more grim news to the car industry which has laid off thousands of workers in recent weeks.
Derek Simpson, the joint leader of Unite, said the job losses showed how deeply the recession was affecting the motor industry, given that BMW was a "hugely profitable" firm and Cowley was an efficient factory.
He said: "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 banks will also have to start making credit available again or this is going to lead to disaster."
Mini was almost the last of the British car makers to keep on working flat out. Most of its rivals have laid off staff and introduced part-time working as vehicle sales plummet. Jaguar Land Rover has cut nearly 2,000 workers, Nissan 1,200, and Aston Martin a third of its staff.
The Cowley plant has been a big success since it was taken over by BMW and started building the Mini in 2001. The factory has the capacity to produce 260,000 models a year.
Last year, Mini sold 50,000 cars in America, its biggest market, compared with 40,000 in Britain. Global sales fell last month by 34.5%, higher than the 31% decline in the wider car market.
US manufacturer General Motors last week announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs. GM employs 5,000 people in Britain but said it did not know how many of them would go.
The government claims it is working hard to keep the car industry afloat. The business secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced a £2.3bn aid package last month and the new trade and investment minister, Mervyn Davies, has been asked to draw up plans to improve access to additional funding for car companies' financing arms. He is expected to meet industry figures to discuss his plans this week.
Now 50 years old, the Mini, in its various forms, has been one of the most successful and most loved cars of all time.
Launched in 1959, it was soon dubbed the "classless car". Almost anyone, from film stars to factory workers, could be driving one.
With its terrific manoeuvrability and its easy-to-park qualities, the Mini was an instant success and spawned equally popular spin-offs such as the Monte Carlo Rally-winning Mini Cooper which featured in the cult film The Italian Job.

 

That's crazy! MINI sales have been up, haven't they?

 

Just in the US - not worldwide

 

This is how i found out...

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/16/m...obs-in-the-uk/

 

Expect production delays since your MINIs will sit in the shop untouched over the weekends. It was bad enough when we had to deal with it because of the strikers in Spain last year...

 

Some disgruntled factory workers have admitted to scratch hoods, keyed the paint, put dents on the body work, smash dashboards and misplace keys of freshly made cars as retaliation

Personally, I think BMW managed those layoffs pretty poorly. This will inevitably bring very bad PR over them and the brand

Note: If you currently have a MINI on order, make sure to go over the car with a fine tooth comb. I suspect quality control may go down the way of the toilet given the prevalent low morale of the remaining workers.

 

Man, I'm planning on ordering one at the end of the month. Hopefully things have died down or been worked out in the next few weeks. I don't want a bunch of disgruntled workers building my baby!

 

Not to happy worker.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7891913.stm

 

If I were to buy a new MINI today, I would try to get one off the lot. I am a big advocate of custom ordering but given the sour situation at plant Oxford I am not so sure I would like to get a car made by employees with low morale.

 

Im not sure but my car was either finished last week or is being built this week. Why me!!?? Its too bad bc, im in Spain and i can't do the mini owners group thing. I tried to inter my VIN number but i havent taken delivery yet...do i need to get my production number?? Time to call pentagon car sales.

 

I really hope thats just a rumor

 

Where did you read this at??

 

You have to bear in mind these were temp workers, not regular line workers. Sure, it's tough to lose a good paying job, but it is and was always a temp job based on production needs............as wrong as it might sound, you don't have to give notice to temp workers, it's the nature of the job.

Both parties knew this...........I disagree that BMW should have given them notice. What, so they could vandalize a whole bunch of cars as they went down the line? Nope, they handled it correctly.........escort them off the premises and carry on.............

 

I'm surprised that some of these temp workers have worked at the factory for over 4 years. What kind of temp job is that? I wonder how many of them have worked longer than the hired factory workers.

 

Ah... that makes sense.

I feel so bad for all those guys. We should help make up for the loss of sales everywhere else by buying more.

I would say boycott, but that just wouldn't be fun for anybody.

 

When gas goes back to $4/gal, there will be more demand for Minis than factory production capacity again

I feel for the temps, but it's better for Mini to cut back on production than to fill up testing facilities with unsold cars: http://jalopnik.com/5135675/where-ar...ng-unsold-cars

 

Just because a lousy employment policy is common doesn't make it right. Corporations have lost respect for their workers, and show little concern for the lives they wreck as a result of layoffs and downsizing. When 20% of a workforce is laid off with one hour's notice and no benefits, it's a disgrace. Shame on MINI / BMW.

 

They get an additional weeks pay and are still technically "employed" by the temp agency they are contracted under. Personally I think it's better than the system in the US where if GM, Ford or Chrysler isn't selling cars (like now) they can let as many of the workers go as they want but they still have to pay them 95% of their salary. And the UAW walked out of negotiations over this very issue with GM while the company slowly goes under with our tax dollars loaned to it.
I do agree BMW should've handled it differently, they should've told them at the end of their last shift they wouldn't be needed anymore and to not come back, none of this angry mob in the factory BS.

 

they should've told them at the end of their last shift they wouldn't be needed anymore and to not come back, none of this angry mob in the factory BS.

I thought that's exactly what they did............

 

They also should have fined the ones who vandalized the cars if that rumor turned out to be true. Disgusting. What part of "temporary job" did these people not understand? I've been laid off from a temp job before. I did not threaten my ex-boss or ransack the shipping room. I just shrugged and left. Some of these people worked a few years. My temp job was barely 90 days! And no, I didn't qualify for insurance either.