Skip to main content

First Hoover, Now Bosch

First Hoover, now Bosch with another 200 jobs lost, and it is still only Wednesday.

God only knows how many more will shed jobs before this year is through but rumours are that over 80 major companies have already contacted the Assembly to say that they are in serious trouble.

Comments

Anonymous said…
but nothing is happening, the unions have no faith in the OWG,neither do the workers . and what about support for those looking to go into business to get a job - still no contracts to deliver the support that was due in April.
We have a castrated executive
November 19, 2008 10:15 pm
Draig said…
And who has any faith in the Unions? Do they represent agency staff in any of these places? In many places they don't bother, because agency workers are harder to unionise, and they can't be bothered to make the effort. They take employees dues to pay for fatcat union bosses, and when the factory is under threat, they usually just help to negotiate the closure.

They themselves are castrated by Thatcherite legislation that Labour has never fully repealed, yet they have never mounted a fundamental challenge to this.

Much like the the Labour Party they still finance, the unions are just out for themselves. They're a total waste of time.
November 20, 2008 12:05 am
Ian Titherington said…
The unions are not a waste of time but I admit as a union branch officer, are not perfect. However, I am not sure what anyone can currently do as the drop into this recession is extremely steep.

It's the uncertainty that scares me and with respect to all pundits including yourself Dylan, there are no answers to deal with the present. I only wish that there were, as I have just been phoning to see if one of my best mates has lost his job in Bosch.
November 20, 2008 1:04 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
November 20, 2008 7:01 am
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
VM - there are indications that the OWG has just given up and are just accepting that massive job cuts are going to happen.

Draig - you may be right about the unions but I couldn't possibly comment!

Ian - I remain a half full pint person and cannot believe that we are unable to deal with this.

I still believe the best way to deal with any potential future closures is to have a dialogue with ALL major employers before the decision is made to close.

I have been making this point for the last two years (see article on Hoover below) but it is still isn't happening.

This may not save all jobs but at least it may enable some of the companies to reconsider their decision, especially if European funds could be used to support training and capital investment.

Indeed, I am working on such a proposition for Saturday's Western Mail article.

We have to try everything we can because if we do not, we might as well not have any devolution for Wales.
November 20, 2008 7:01 am
Anonymous said…
There does seem to be a degree of acceptance now that job cuts will keep happening until the downturn reaches its greatest depths - the question is, can the WAG do enough to stem the losses beyond what are absolutely necessary?
November 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE CRACHACH

Unlike me, do you consider yourself part of 'the establishment' here in Wales?  As thousands gather for the Eisteddfod in Mold this morning, they will, according to some social commentators, not be participating in the greatest cultural festivals of Europe. Instead, they will merely be bit-part players in one of the annual gatherings of the great and good of Wales.  Unkindly, this set of the movers and shakers in Welsh society is known as 'the crachach' , and constitute a social class all of their own, dominating the educational, cultural and media sectors of Wales and allegedly looking down upon any outsider with new ideas, reinforcing mediocrity and failing to see beyond the limits of their own narrow experience.  They are said to live in a comfort zone that awaits the expected invitation to the next glass of chilled chardonnay and canapés, forgetting that due to their lack of leadership and drive, Wales remains firmly rooted to the bottom of the UK prosperity league ...
30 comments
Read more

THE FUTURE FOR SILICON VALLEY

During the last twenty years, there have been many academics, politicians and policymakers (including yours truly) who have looked over to the innovation developed in Silicon Valley, California and wondered if we could ever emulate that success here in Wales. Whilst the former First Minister Rhodri Morgan proposed only last week that South Wales could become the “UK’s answer to Silicon Valley”, he is not alone in the world with such a suggestion for his local area. With imitation often being the sincerest form of flattery, many others regions across the globe have tried to emulate the ‘secret sauce’ that has led to this small valley to the South East of San Francisco becoming the seedbed for world-leading companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Google. But after fifty years of success, can it maintain its position as the premier location for innovation in the World? This is a question that its own business community has recently been asking itself. This has culminated in a...
Read more

Turn the Welsh Blogosphere Blue

It's not often I will criticise my party in public but we have really got to pull our finger out over our presence on the web, especially as it is estimated that we only have four active bloggers (and I am one of those!). This despite having a significant presence by individual Welsh conservatives on networking sites such as Facebook . It is disappointing that only Nick Bourne has a blog presence amongst our AMs and that Glyn Davies (who started his blog when down in Cardiff Bay) is the sole parliamentary candidate with an active blog. As far as I know, not one of our councillors is currently blogging. Many will say that they don't have the time to do this but we are all busy people and one of our hardest working shadow ministers, David Jones MP, makes the effort to blog nearly every day. Others will say that there is nothing to write about, so why do I get at least ten press releases every day from the Welsh party? Some have told me that it is a waste of time because the ...
19 comments
Read more