Britiain’s biggest union, Unite, has said it welcomes reports that Bombardier’s Derby site has been secured for three years but ‘warns that the coalition government should not be let off the hook’.
‘Britain’s last train maker needs a significant contract’ for the company to have a long-term future, the union said.
The plant was under review ‘after the Tory-led government controversially awarded’ a £1.6 billion order for the Thameslink route to a consortium led by Siemens.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said:
“This is good news but it should not let the government off the hook. If the coalition had done the right thing and awarded Bombardier the Thameslink contract the company would have years of work, instead of being given a brief respite.
“Britain’s last train-maker needs to win a significant contract for it to have the long-term future it deserves. The government must do everything possible to support this strategically important manufacturer. Unite will keep fighting for the future of British train manufacturing.”
Yeah but were Bombardier not getting rid of loads of people anyway?
They’re not exactly a British company what with connections in Germany and Canada. Â While Siemens aren’t either, the Government should have said the Thameslink contract could be awarded to anyone, but the trains MUST be built / part built in the UK.
So long as a company is providing jobs in Britain it is not important who owns the company.
‘the tory led government’ whose hands were tied by EU red tape set up by the previous labour government which the unions (suprise suprise) have never acknowledged, and which A Samuel seems to overlook as well.
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Yes Labour were no better at awarding the contract A J W because they stuck to the previous goverments “best value for money policy” when they were able to consider national aims.
Why do we see councils running Renault Master based minibuses around rather than on the Vauxhall Vivaro chassis both of which are built by Vauxhall at Luton.
On the “best value” procedure Renault must undercut Vauxhall.
The unions raised no objection when Japanese trains were ordered.
However lets get back to the individual, how many Bombadier workers consider British jobs with say their car purchases.
How many ignore the Derby built Toyotas when making their purchases.
Fully agree with the above. It is unbelievable that this can be allowed to happen. Using EU rules about open competition is not good enough if the Gov. dont’t know hjopw to get round that problem they should ask Sarkozy for a Template. As an aside to this why has the Gov. allowed the olympic committee to order 4000 BMWs for the games – why were they not told to buy Jaguar and Range Rovers and why were they allowed to order the Olympic Tickets from the USA (16 tons worth!!)
All of this concerns British Jobs and right now that is one of the most serious issues the Gov is facing.
Totally agree on the BMW’s and Ticket Purchasing from America. The whole world will be looking at the Olympics and what do we do, use foreign cars, we absolutely should of been ferrying guests and VIPs around in Jaguars and Range Rovers. I attended the BBC Sports Personality of The Year last year in Birmingham and the BBC using taxpayers money hired a fleet of BMWs literally 5 mile down the road from Range Rover and Jaguar Cars. This Government like previous ones have sold the British worker down the river and hid behind the pathetic EU Fair Play rules that Sarkozey and Merkel seem to just ignore or as you suggest know there way around to favour their own manufacturers. I once had the chance to ask Ed Milliband why as a Government with his home town of Doncaster and designers of trains in this country did we need to buy from outside of the UK and he spouted the same EU rules. It’s simply not good enough. They need to grow a spine.  Â
Sadly, there are no longer any British firms involved in trainbuilding and nowadays therefore, we have to rely soley upon foreign-owned companies to provide all locomotives and rolling stock. It is fortunate that Bombardier have kept Derby Works open but there is now talk that they may pull out after 2014 if no major orders are forthcoming. The consequenses are that, unless Hitachi do actually set up shop in Newton Aycliffe and are sucessful in competing with the European “big-three”, all future trains for our rail network will be imported.