Land Rover Workers: They Don’t Work If Coolers are Empty
July 19, 2012
In March, workers at Land Rover’s Halewood car plant refused to go back to work when they discovered that the water coolers in their section were empty. The employees left the facility and waited in the dining hall until supplies were replenished!
Days after the incident, workers who stalked off the job at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant hit back at criticism. They said they were not militants – but were simply claiming their “basic human rights”.
Several DHL staff —contracted by Jaguar-Land Rover— stopped work for 20 minutes after their water cooler ran dry and only returned when supplies were replenished. The employers’ organization, the Confederation of British Industry, criticised their “lack of common sense”, but the staff who took part in the walkout said the row had been brewing over several weeks after their supplies of water were halved due to cost-cutting.
According to Echo Diary, a staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, called to made a statement: “We were off the job for one and a half hours. Through cost cutting our water was halved and we were then told that we were not getting any water at all, so as soon as the last bottle of water ran out we walked out.”
After hasty negotiations, new supplies for the water coolers were delivered and the workers returned to their jobs. Another worker told the digital diary: “A few weeks ago DHL halved our water supplies from 140 bottles a fortnight for the whole site to 70. We had been running out of water for the past couple of weeks and our water supply was then stopped altogether. We are not a bunch of militants, we are just after our human rights. The company has to provide an adequate water supply. They are cutting in the wrong places. The canteens here are in the dark ages – sometimes there is no running water.”
He claimed the walkout by seven DHL staff was supported by about 40 workers in the neighbouring press shop, where metal panels for vehicles are made, who also walked out.
When questioned by several members of the media, Jaguar-Land Rover declined to comment and argued that the dispute only involved DHL staff and none of its own employees. The company also insisted that car production was not affected by the action.