Anger as Rolls Royce ‘ignored factory rescue plan’

Feb 6 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

ROLLS ROYCE walked away from the offer of a new factory in North Liverpool in deciding to close its Merseyside plant.

Angry campaigners last night condemned the decision to shut the Netherton factory and said it had already been made before the start of a 90-day consultation last November.

It involved lengthy discussions with staff, the North West Develop-ment Agency and Sefton Council over strategies to safeguard’s the site’s future.

But sources close to the negotia-tions say they hit a brick wall throughout the “sham” consultation.

A senior source said: “The decision had been made some time ago, perhaps in another place – in America.”

Exactly 206 skilled Merseyside jobs will be lost at the Dunnings Bridge Road site, with com-pulsory redundancy notices issued to workers in April.

The firm says most of the staff will go before October, with the site wound up by March, 2009.

A factory in Mount Vernon, Ohio, will take on the work.

Rolls Royce was offered major incentives to stay in Merseyside, including a new factory in north Liverpool, and more productive working patterns from the staff.

Welder Joe Birch, a shop steward for the Amicus union involved in the consultation from the beginning, said: “It’s been a sham consultation.”

In an alternative business plan, the workforce said they were prepared to lose some staff and go on flexible con-tracts – only work when contracts came in.

But the cost savings could not match the figures Rolls Royce were demanding.

It said the site had high overheads, fluctuating work volumes and suffered from the adverse exchange rate with the dollar.

Mr Birch, 57, added: “Irrespective of what we came up with, they were hell-bent on closing the factory.”

But a spokesperson for the company denied the allega-tion. He said: “The decision was done at the end of the 90-day process. It was not a backwards process.”

He confirmed closure of the Mount Vernon site was never considered by the company.

Before the news broke, the NWDA said they were still awaiting a response from Rolls Royce’s US parent company after a meeting two weeks ago.

Steve Broomhead, chief executive of the NWDA, said: “We are saddened to hear the news from Rolls-Royce. We have been working with the company, management and staff for some time, and done all we can to construct a way forward and secure a long term future for the site.” EU legislation meant the agency could not simply give hand-outs to Rolls Royce. But it is understood it would have benefited from subsidies to take on new staff, had a deal been struck.

Cllr Tony Robertson, leader of Sefton Council, said: “I can’t claim to be surprised but it’s a rather unfortunate set of circumstances.”

Debbie Brannan, the Unite regional officer for Rolls Royce, said: “Members are devastated and angry the company seem to have been dead-set on closure from the very beginning. We will call on the Government to intervene to see if it can change the company’s decision. We will not rule out the possibility of taking industrial action.”

Union staff will meet today to consider strike action and a rally in Liverpool supporting workers will go ahead on Saturday as planned

OPINION: PAGE 10;

BILL GLEESON – BUSINESS WEEK: PAGE 8

benschofield