Rolls-Royce staff admit defeat

Feb 22 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

ROLLS-ROYCE workers with their “backs against the wall” have called off plans to vote over industrial action, the Daily Post can reveal.

They made the decision on Wednesday amid fears the Netherton factory would miss out on contracts ahead of its closure in March, 2009.

Workers were also concern-ed a strike could have hit their redundancy packages.

The news comes after company bosses admitted they had walked away from an offer of a new factory.

Chief executive Sir John Rose was yesterday grilled by the Commons business and enterprise select committee.

He told MPs there was no going back on the decision to close the industrial turbine plant and shift work to a sister factory in Mount Vernon in the US mid-West.

Rolls-Royce announced the site was closing with the loss of 206 skilled Merseyside jobs earlier this month.

Union representative Joe Birch said the workers had little choice other than to back down. He said: “Where do you go when your back’s against the wall?

“It would have been detrimental to the people there now if you took industrial action.”

Mr Birch admitted the struggle was over but said he wanted answers as to why Rolls-Royce refused the new factory offer.

But if such an offer wasn’t made – as some claim, said Mr Birch, he wanted to know why the Government did not intervene more strongly.