The Workers Party of Britain believes that Bentley, the luxury car manufacturer based in Crewe, should cancel its attempts to chase 1,000 workers out the door.
Bentley has written to each of its 4,000 workers with a ‘voluntary release’ package based on age, salary and experience, and is asking for at least 1,000 of them to come forward – with the threat of compulsory redundancies for those who do not ‘volunteer’.
One worker, a supporter of the WPB, has told us that he has been offered less than £1,000 for every year he has worked at Bentley. With a young family and dim prospects of alternative work in Crewe, what choice does a young worker have but to sit tight? These men and women, with a strong work ethic and valuable technical skills, must not be lost to the economy.
Bentley has made healthy profits in recent years. A €300m (£268m) swing from the red into the black from 2018 to 2019, and a €54m (£48m) profit in the first quarter of 2020 – a record performance for the 100-year-old company. Now that tough times have arrived, Bentley should stick by its workers.
If Bentley, like other companies, cannot protect the jobs of the workers, despite having so recently made record profits, the facility and its employees should be taken into public ownership and repurposed to produce items that the country desperately needs, perhaps starting with ventilators and other essential hospital equipment.