Janet Burstall
Mitsubishi announced on May 21 that the engine assembly plant at Lonsdale, employing nearly 700 workers, will close in 18 months' time. This is part of a $5.7 billion global restructure. Mitsubishi will invest $600 million in the Tonsley assembly line to prepare for the launch of the new model Magna at the end of 2005. Employing 2700 people, the Tonsley assembly line could continue until 2011.
However, there is huge global excess capacity in vehicle production, and fierce international price competition. "Mitsubishi sales are down 18 per cent in the first four months of the year, while the company's export strategy has been left in tatters, with sales falling from 24,000 to 4000 since 200", according to the May 22 Australian.
So the futures of over 3500 workers and their families are under threat from profiteers who are unaccountable to these workers or to anyone else 鈥� unaccountable to any franchise other than their major shareholders. Thousands more people work for businesses in South Australia supplying parts to Mitsubishi.
The car workers belong to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. The union's national secretary, Doug Cameron, was quoted in Workers Online saying that the AMWU would commence immediate negotiations on improving redundancy provisions. He also accused the federal government of doing "absolutely nothing" to provide the nation with a manufacturing policy during its nine years in office.
"It only shows any interest when this sort of dramatic development unfolds. Frankly, it's too little, too late", Cameron said, adding that his union is committed to developing a coherent manufacturing policy with future governments. "Australian workers and their families deserve that sort of attention and the wider community needs a manufacturing base that provides jobs, research and development and innovation."
Cameron is not even considering the possibility of trying to save the jobs of the Lonsdale workers 鈥� he is talking as if they are gone.
All the Mitsubishi workers are in the middle of a process of attrition. The Lonsdale engine workers have 18 months to get used to the idea of losing their jobs, and for a lucky few of them to find employment elsewhere. But Adelaide's high unemployment rate will make this difficult. Redundancy payments do not go very far, and the money doesn't make up for the depression and isolation of unemployment.
Socialists and unionists should be rallying to help the Adelaide workers to find the confidence to challenge Mitsubishi's right to decide whether or not they have a livelihood. A number of questions and issues warrant discussion.
1. Can the Lonsdale and Tonsley workers, and workers employed at associated businesses, afford to let Lonsdale close in 2005?
2. If the government can put public money into supporting Mitsubishi, why can't Mitsubishi's plants be put into public ownership?
3. If production for profit has the car industry in a global crisis of excess capacity, then what might be a sustainable basis for vehicle manufacture in Adelaide? What transport needs are not being met?
4. Who could provide solidarity and support to the Lonsdale workers if they decided to try to save their jobs?
The 18 months notice of closure could mean that all anger and hope subsides and the plant will close quietly. Or the 18 months' could be used by Lonsdale workers and supporters to prepare to stand up and fight for the jobs.
[Janet Burstall is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From 麻豆传媒 Weekly, June 23, 2004.
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