Expect more of it to come: Honda scaremongering & job losses
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-800-jobs.html
Honda's UK boss warns Britain must stay at heart of EU as it cuts 800 jobs
Britain must retain a leading position within the European Union or face damaging economic consequences and risk losing valuable investment, the head of Honda in the UK has warned.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telegraph
Despite the Japanese car maker suffering a slow down in its European car sales which prompted it to announce up to 800 job losses on Friday at its Swindon factory, the company remains committed to the region and believes the UK will undermine the competitiveness of its manufacturers if it assumes a more marginal place with the EU or even leaves entirely.
Dave Hodgetts, Honda’s UK managing director, said: “I think you can see very clearly that the reliance on the overall European economy for British manufacturers is actually very high. We have very strong markets in Europe, and globally as well, but we are more dependent on the European region for the exporting of our products.
“Anything that weakens our ability to trade with the region would be detrimental to UK manufacturing.”
Mr Hodgetts said the UK needed to stay close to the heart of Europe as David Cameron looks to renegotiate the country’s relationship with the EU, but warned the UK risks losing out if a subsequent referendum voted for the UK to leave.
“It depends on what’s negotiated. There would have to be a some penalty to being outside rather than inside that’s the risk I think.”
Honda has invested £2bn in the UK and exports the vast majority of its car production at its Swindon plant to Europe. It made 165,607 cars in 2012 and employs 3,500 people.
Mr Hodgetts said Honda would accept a changed relationship between the UK and the EU if it didn’t affect the competitiveness of UK manufacturers.
“But when we see an anti-competitive situation if we were outside the EU then we wouldn’t support that,” he said.
Honda blamed its decision to cut jobs at Swindon on the slump in demand for cars from Europe, with the market there down by about a million cars last year as a result of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The car maker said despite falling sales in Europe overall, sales were still growing in the UK.
It is the first time Honda has made compulsory redundancies in the UK, since it started making cars here in 1992. The job cuts will be made by April.
“I have worked at the factory for over 20 years and I am disappointed that we are forced to take this action, especially after what we have come through over the last few years with the Tsunami in Japan and Thai flooding,” said Mr Hodgetts.
As recently as September the company said it was investing £267m at Swindon to support the introduction of a new Civic, a new CR-V model and a new 1.6-litre diesel engine for Honda Civic. It was Honda’s largest investment in the UK in 10 years, and around 500 people were recruited last year as part of the expansion.
Unite, Britain’s biggest union, said the job cuts at Swindon dealt a “hammer blow” to UK manufacturing and the local economy.
However, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said that while the news was “very disappointing”, long-term prospects for the UK car industry remained good.
The context of this is that the Prime Minister is due to make a speech on his EU policy in this month, in what people are dubbing as the most important speech of his premiership. The pressure has been building for an in/out referendum this government by the rise of UKIP in the polls (at 16% in one poll last week) and pressure from his backbenchers and public opinion. What Cameron is going to do we haven't a clue as of yet, but from the news over the past week or two it's certainly coming to a head now.
So why did I post this negative piece to our cause? well it's simple, because we're going to have a lot of this over the next few years and when we eventually get our referendum on the subject - and I think we ought to clear it up.
From his comments, they're not actually as bad as I expected - usually big business such as these will simply come down as a "we need to stay in or we'll simply collapse' view - but his comments seem rather measured. The Honda boss warns that if we leave the EU it could result in the United Kingdom losing business to the continent and that we'd lose out. Now these can be debunked with a few simple points;
- The UK is the EU's most important trading partner and would be able to secure favourable trading conditions outside of the EU, as the biggest trading partner we would have the influence to secure a better trading deal than any other nation so far has.
- The EU would be bound by WTO rules regarding tariffs, so even if it didn't want to secure favourable trade conditions with the UK (which would be economic suicide for struggling EU economies) then it'd be unable to do so.
- A list of free-trade deals with the EU which the UK could opt for; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europea...ade_agreements
We're going to hear a lot of this '3 million jobs depend on Europe' slogan over the next few years with the likes of pro-Euro and pro-EU Richard Branson being wheeled out to repeat it, and it's true. 3 million jobs do depend on our trade with Europe. But who in the debate is proposing we halt trade with Europe? nobody is, it's a straw man argument.
Do remember that. Thoughts?
If anybody has any doubts and is swayed slightly by the comments of the Honda boss, then please do comment and I (and i'm sure others) would do our best to put any doubts to bed - because we can't lose our independence based on scaremongering.
