Unions demand administrators reinstate sacked Manganese Bronze staff

UNIONS representing workers at collapsed Coventry taxi maker Manganese Bronze have demanded that administrators reinstate the 156 staff made redundant due to the collapse of the business last month.

The news of the redundancies was broken to staff yesterday. Many reacted angrily to the decision, which affects around 80% of shopfloor workers.

Several staged a sit-in protest at the factory following the redundancies as organisers of the Unite union questioned how administrators from PwC could possibly sell the business as a going concern if it had axed almost half the workforce.

Unite said if the situation could not be resolved then the Government should intervene.
Unite national officer for the automotive industry Roger Maddison said: “Only last night (Tuesday) PwC were telling us there were significant interested parties. Now the administrators are ruthlessly sacking over 150 highly skilled workers at the iconic black cab maker.

“The black cabs are world famous and we believe this company has a future. How can PwC treat this company as a going concern with virtually no staff?

“The black cab is part of Britain’s car manufacturing heritage; the government must now be on standby to save this historic company from being left to the vultures.”

PwC said that due to the firm’s financial difficulties it had been left with no option but to wield the axe.

Matthew Hammond, joint administrator and PwC partner – who broke the news to staff, said: “Regretfully, without financial support to overcome the group’s operational issues we have had to make staff redundancies.

“While the steering box recall remains, there is a voluntary suspension on vehicle sales, and we are now concentrating all resources on testing the solution to the steering fault.  We have retained sufficient numbers of staff across the dealership, head office and production network to address the operational, technical and financial circumstances that the business faces.”   

In total 108 staff have been retained or laid off.  The 12 that have been laid off have been sent home on partial pay and will be called back into work should vehicle production start up again.   

Of the 176 employees based at the group’s head office and manufacturing site in Coventry, 99 have been made redundant and of the 98 employees based at the dealerships in London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Coventry, 57 have been made redundant.

The retained staff based in Coventry will continue to focus on finding a solution for the steering fault alongside head office resource to keep the business running.  The remaining staff based in the dealerships across the UK will continue to service taxis and will be involved in the steering box refit once a solution has been found.

Elsewhere, hundreds of jobs could be at risk at Wolverhampton-based Tarmac after the firm began a consultation with staff at its Ettingshall headquarters.

Tarmac is in advanced talks with French aggregates group Lafarge over a possible joint venture which could see the operational base moved to Solihull.

The loss of so many jobs at a firm synonymous with Wolverhampton would be a major blow to the city.