The Socialist 6 May 2020

Bosses push to lift lockdown - they only care about profits

Bosses push to lift lockdown - they only care about profits

Dispatches from the NHS front

Bail out the real wealth creators, not the rich

Homes needed to end overcrowding

Homeless left on streets during pandemic

Pay full fees for virtual courses? - No way!

Them&Us

Your donations can keep the Socialist going

Test and trace: workers need a real plan

Tories using pandemic to shift lab testing out of NHS

Nationalise British Airways to stop 12,000 redundancies

Postal workers force Royal Mail back

No increase in transport capacity without adequate safety precautions for workers and passengers

Unsafe Workplace? "It's up to you" PCS tells reps and members

Further protests in Ireland against Debenhams closures - UK fightback needed

Rolls Royce threatens 8,000 job losses

EDF Energy workers furloughed on 100% pay

India: Fighting the curse of capitalism and coronavirus

US: Trump's public health cuts have condemned thousands worldwide

Trump puts profit before safety (again)

The Tyneside apprentices' strike during WW2

Peter Hadden remembered

Going viral: Socialist comments and letters on the corona crisis

TV Review BBC Panorama: PPE shortage - how many lives will be lost?

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Rolls Royce threatens 8,000 job losses

Rolls-Royce is reumoured to be cutting jobs in its Derby plant, photo USAF/Rick-Goodfriend/CC (Click to enlarge)

Ian Hunter, Derby Socialist Party

Rolls Royce has announced a possible and imminent 8,000 redundancies. This was explained as 'necessary' because of huge cuts in production by aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Airbus has cut production by one third and furloughed 3,200 staff.

Details of the redundancies are expected by the end of May. The Financial Times recently stated that the company's restructuring plan could shrink the workforce by 15%.

In early April, the workers' union Unite agreed a deal with Rolls Royce to 'financially protect' the company's 20,000 UK workforce during the coronavirus pandemic. The package included a 10% pay 'delay' from April. Unite has now told Rolls Royce to "step back" from making redundancies.

The latest round of redundancies will have a devastating impact on the workers' families and the local economy. Action will be difficult at the present time. A mass community march and demonstration, like the 10,000-strong protest in 2010 when Derby-based train-maker Bombardier was under threat, is not possible under current lockdown restrictions.

However, Unite should call for the nationalisation of Rolls Royce as happened in 1971 - under a Tory government! This should be under democratic workers' control, with no enforced job losses, and the development of a future alternative plan of production.

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Bosses push to lift lockdown - they only care about profits