2009 News Archive

The Government must intervene to stop the closure of the Ericsson factory in Coventry, according to local ex-Labour MP, Dave Nellist.

Ericsson announced on Tuesday (November 10th) the axing of 700 employees and the closure of its Research and Development facility at Ansty, near Coventry. The company had only just completed its move to the new location in the summer, on a site made possible by the financial assistance of the West Midlands Development Agency.

Mr. Nellist, who in the 1980s was the local MP for the Coventry factories, and for the last 12 years has been a member of the City Council for the Socialist Party, has contacted the company's main trade union, Unite, to offer support.

Cllr Nellist said today:

"It's about time the Government started taking serious action against these footloose multinationals.  Ericsson has not made this decision overnight.  It has used public money to help establish its new Research and Development centre. Now, like others before it (for example Peugeot), is exporting those jobs to countries where wage rates are lower and trade unions are weaker, in order to maximise profits."

"The Government has spent billions stabilising the banks, it should not stand idly by whilst another essential manufacturing concern leaves the country. It should intervene and nationalise Ericsson - or are the skills and experience of those workers, in the technologies of the future - optics, mobiles and broadband - worth less bankers' bonuses."

"The West Midlands is the hardest hit region for unemployment in this recession. The Government should take action to defend the jobs of these skilled manufacturing workers who in some cases have given a lifetime to Eriksson, and its forerunners Marconi and GEC-Telecommunications".