Saturday’s front page headline in the Evening Advertiser was “Left on the Scrapheap”, and told the story of the impending redunancy of nearly 200 employees of EMI in Swindon. One must have the greatest sympathy for those, who through no fault of their own, now find themselves made redundant.

 

    May I suggest however, that this is just the “writing on the wall” and the inevitable result of globalisation of the economy. Some years ago I watched a TV documentary concerning employment/unemployment and the interaction with welfare benefit schemes. At the end of the programme a senior American businessman intoned “big business will go where the labour market is most favourable”. He wasn’t fooling! EMI have done it in Swindon and Mr. Mittal has done it in Romania, Swindon workers didn’t like it, neither did the Corus steelworkers in S.Wales.

 

     If Blair & Co. have their way over EMU with the resultant further integration in Europe we shall inevitably witness a further shift of manufacturing industry into Europe, and whilst Swindon may be able to mop up 200 EMI ex-employees, the outlook is not so good in S.Wales.

 

    If we permit EMU and the loss of control of our finances that will inevitably result, not only will we irrevocably lose our national financial reserves, but we shall gradually join in the 12% of European unemployment, some devaluation of the £ will inevitably take place, and the burning question is, how will this affect the property market? With a mixture of rising unemployment and devaluation it would seem likely that housing prices will fall, and many homeowners will be faced with the problem of substantial negative equity in respect of their major capital asset.

 

    President Bush has recognised the importance of maintaining his country’s manufacturing base in respect of the steel industry and has place a tariff on imported steel to protect the US steel industry and the jobs that go with it. Yet our present Government seems hell bent on surrendering UK assets and joining in the economic downturn that is affecting those European countries with living standards that equate with our own (notably Germany).

 

     For us the EMI affair should be seen for what it really is, the sacrifice of a relatively expensive workforce for a cheaper one, for cost reductions are chiefly a reflection of labour costs. This reduction in manufacturing capacity is, of course, not peculiar to Swindon, it is a national problem, and directly or indirectly it affects every one of us.

 

Councillor Owen Lister