Who will meet the Visteon workers?
22 January 2010
Bethan addresses Visteon pensioners on the steps of the Senedd
BETHAN Jenkins AM has issued a call for UK Government ministers to meet with Visteon workers after the Secretary of State for Wales refused to see a local delegation fighting for their pensions.
Neath MP Peter Hain refused the request even though some of the 700 pensioners that were once employed at Visteon’s plant in Swansea live in his constituency, saying he had already met a number of former workers. Some of those men and women could lose as much as half their pensions, claiming that one-time employer Ford reneged on its promises to honour their entitlements.
Bethan, the South Wales West Plaid Cymru AM, said: “I’ve met many, many Visteon workers, and they all have different stories and individual problems. What Peter Hain is in effect saying is: ‘I’ve seen and heard enough, I don’t want to deal with this anymore’.
“He’s written to Yvette Cooper, the Pensions Secretary, and received the usual shrugged shoulders you would expect from this finished administration. He clearly thinks he’s now discharged his duties towards his constituents, but they are still facing up to 50% cuts to their pensions. He could have met them as a minister. He hasn’t resolved anything.”
The last First Minister Rhodri Morgan also refused to meet with Visteon staff, and Bethan is now planning to contact UK ministers and Shadow Cabinet members in a bid to get them to take up the issue.
Around 100 Visteon pensioners, including former workers from Basildon, were at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on Thursday (January 21st), attending a protest that coincides with talks in New York between pensioners, their union and the Ford Motor Company.
Mike Gard, one of the pensioners, said: “This meeting represents a last ditch attempt to avoid legal action against the company because the pensioners believe that Ford guaranteed them their full pension rights when the car giant created Visteon in 2000.
“Swansea workers, like their colleagues in the other plants which were spun off at the same time, were convinced to transfer their pension to Visteon because they believed that they were safe. However, when Visteon went into administration last spring, the pension fund has been in assessment to go into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) which will result in severe pension reductions which have already begun for the 3,000 pensioners – 700 of which are from South Wales.”
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Bethan with Dai Lloyd AM (left) and Ioan Bellin, Plaid PPC
Visteon, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, was spun out of Ford in 2000. By 2004, it employed 70,000 staff at over 200 sites in 27 countries around the world, including the UK, and turned over $18.7 billion in sales.
- In 2005, Visteon offloaded 17 unprofitable plants and six offices. In 2006, Visteon delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after its share price dropped to two cents.
- On March 31 last year, the company’s UK operation went into administration with debts of £669m. Some 560 staff at plants in Enfield, Belfast and Basildon were given less than an hour’s notice of the redundancies.
- Those workers then occupied their factories, claiming that they had been given guarantees on pay and conditions when Visteon separated from Ford. Several weeks of protest led to assurances from both Ford and Visteon that severance packages would be improved.
- However, shortly afterwards, the Visteon UK Pension Fund had entered the assessment period for the Pension Protection Fund.
- The PPF had been established by the Government following a long campaign involving Cardiff steel workers and Welsh politicians, after the collapse of Allied Steel and Wire in 2002 left those workers without pensions.
- However, the 3,000 ex-employees of Visteon UK – including 700 in Swansea and workers who have been paying into a Ford pension fund for up to 40 years – have since discovered that they may receive less than half of what they are owed if they are paid through the PPF.
- The Visteon Pension Action Group is now planning to take Ford to court, claiming it was promised safeguards for the fund when Visteon was spun off. It also argues that the PPF may well be unsustainable in the long run. The pensions regulator is also examining the group’s claims.
