“Rover Could Have Endangered BMW”

This was the title on Monday, March 20th, of an interview with the Chairman of the Central Works Council, Manfred Schoch in the German newspaper Die Welt. The paper summarised the situation in its subtitle: - Schoch supports the decision of the board of directors. All of the workers’ representatives on BMW’s supervisory board do so, too. They all signed the declaration of intent for the sales negotiations after a preliminary discussion with the executive of the IG Metall. Otherwise “Rover would have dragged in BMW with it.” This is how informed circles spread the justification. The increase in price of Rover’s production due to British interest rate politics would have endangered the whole combine.

What was endangered? Let us listen to Schoch at an extra-ordinary meeting of the work force on March 17th: “In the segment report we will be able to show new record pre-tax profits of 4,1 Billion Marks. This record could only be achieved by the excellent work of the whole of the BMW work force, who committed themselves for this success with a lot of extra hours, overtime and special shifts. Together we can be proud of this.”

Seemingly it is about BMW and only BMW - in Germany: “The uppermost aim was to retain the independence of our company, BMW. This aim should and may not change in the future! Furthermore, the works council is unanimously of the opinion that we continue to want to negotiate with a board of directors that has to be sitting in a four-cylinder in Munich. . . dear colleagues the solutions under consideration at Rover would be for all of us an important if not vitally necessary clearance. BMW remains thereby independent and the jobs at BMW remain safe! The four-cylinder will not be transferred to Detroit, Chicago, Paris or Wolfsburg. and an exchange of shares will not take place.” (ibid)

There is no mention of the British colleagues in the whole of his speech, because the motive of the efforts of the workers’ representatives in the supervisory board - according to the speech - seem to be otherwise: “and one thing has to be said clearly: We are working on a decent solution for Rover. We will close no combine, instead we are trying to find a new owner who will carry on Rover. Incidentally, the closure of Rover Cars would result in additional costs of 3 Billion Marks! Professor Milberg has prepared even for this precarious situation a solution that would save the company further losses of billions.”

The act of “securing the location” at BMW by selling Rover earned union admiration from the IG Metall - at least Die Welt quotes the IG Metall Chief Werner Neugebauer as saying that he demonstratively supports Milberg’s new course and admires the BMW boss “for his clarity and competence how he tackles things.” Still in 1999 the IG Metall boasted about saving Rover - does not charity begin at home? On the other hand it could be an attempt to support Milberg because the family Quant sees him as being responsible for Rover’s losses.

However, the requirement for the approval of the workers’ representative is said to be that no closure of Longbridge takes place. To achieve this, two possibilities were seen:

(a) Help from the British government

(b) Help from the British population

The possibilities of help by the British government are for Schoch (to Die Welt) consist of arranging to find an entry for GM, Toyota or Honda. However, the British colleagues demanded yesterday in a leaflet distributed at the gates of Longbridge the nationalisation of Rover.

The reference to the British population constitutes more an attribution of the causes. As answer to the question of Rover Car’s survival chances (Landrover will be carried on by Ford), Schoch said in an interview: “If more English people would buy a Rover, then Rover would have a future.” In passing, this could now happen, because the Chairman of the AEEU has now called for a boycott of BMW.

BMW Boss Milberg said at a press conference on March 17th: “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have done everything, both in the spirit of the employees and in the spirit of the shareholders. We must now act and bring about a decision.” A few sentences before there was a mention of 8000 redundancies in the course of the attempts to put the company back onto its feet.

Does the BMW works council have anything to reproach itself for? According to the information of LabourNet Germany the BMW work force was not informed about the decision by its representatives in the supervisory board. It had to first read about it in the press. Only on March 17th was an extraordinary works meeting convened, because, according to Schoch,“the work force has a right to know why the decision was taken.”

The accusation gong the rounds that the plans were known about earlier and that the T&G was not informed are answered in the circles of the central works council with the usual but not completely explainable reference to the agreement made in the supervisory board to maintain silence.

To date no contracts have been signed and according to our information the negotiations have stopped temporarily with the venture capital funds company Alchemy. One is obviously avoiding the attention of the press. The reason could also be the broad indignation at a remark made by the Alchemy Chief Jon Moulton to the press. Freely translated, he said that it is of course bad when people become superfluous, but also piles must be cut out.

It is also not certain to what extent the BMW work forces in Germany believe that their jobs have been saved or whether they will show their solidarity with the Longbridge colleagues. To quote Schoch once more: “Alone 12,000 BMW employees have bought a Rover. Also this shows the commitment of the BMW work force to Rover.” Surely this can’t be all?!