Managers at Dundee’s Michelin tyre plant have been praised for protecting jobs after announcing a production shutdown during a ”perfect storm” for the firm.
Workers at the Baldovie factory were said to be concerned at the announcement of a three-week break in manufacturing designed to lower output while protecting jobs and investment at the site.
But Dave Brady, trade union Unite’s shop steward at Michelin, said he was content the steps taken by management will help to safeguard the future for the company’s 860 staff including 140 new starts.
”We are nowhere near the endgame, because the company have big intentions for Dundee,” he said.
Workers at the site have been through production slowdowns to regulate stock several times before, he added, and are now focusing on ”keeping their heads down” and getting on with their work.
And he revealed that new machinery is being installed at the site even as the stall in production is announced.
”Because of the downturn in the economy across Europe and across the world, people are not buying so many cars or tyres, and people are driving less because of the cost of fuel,” the union official said.
”It’s like the perfect storm and it’s causing great concern. But we’ve been talking to the company for the last couple of weeks and it’s a matter for keeping calm and keeping your heads down. Everybody has still got a job and the 140 new starts we took on last year will be keeping their jobs.
”The commitment and investment from the company is still going on in fact lorries are on site right now delivering new machinery. We’ve been through many things in the past and the company will do whatever it can to minimise the impact and get people through this.”
On Friday, The Courier revealed how staff will be asked to undertake training and other duties while production lines fall silent from the end of this month until mid-June.
The closure was said to be in reaction to a reduction in sales thanks to financial turmoil in the eurozone and unseasonably mild weather, leading to a drop in revenues from winter tyres.
Workers will also be asked to stay away from work for 60 hours and catch up with additional shifts by the end of 2013.
Longer-than-normal holiday closures are also planned for July and August.
”Of course we would rather be working flat out but we can’t,” Mr Brady said. ”But the factory have put new blood and are putting new machinery in.
”It’s a good thing that all the new starts are being kept on as well as the more settled staff and that’s what we’re all about. People need to be working for themselves, for the economy and for the good of the whole of Dundee.”
Dundee East MP Stewart Hosie also praised the plant’s bosses after receiving a briefing on the situation.
”Michelin have recognised the downturn in Europe, and specifically in the south of Europe, and they are doing what they do very well: managing down production without threatening production or jobs,” he said.
”That’s the right thing to do in a downturn like this, managing stock levels while maintaining jobs and investment at the site. The actions they are taking are protecting the long-term presence on Michelin in Dundee.”
Announcing the news on Friday, Michelin personnel manager Ian Peart said the firm had been slowing its manufacturing output using other ”levers” since February but now the company had to ”take a chunk out of production”.
Last year, the firm said it would install a new production line which would allow it to make the eco-friendly ”tyres of the future”.