Press Release
Unite calls for 'robust' manufacturing to be at the heart of industrial strategy
23 February 2012
Jobs need to be created in manufacturing as key skills are being lost with workers being let go.
Ahead of today's government manufacturing summit in Bristol, Tony Burke, Unite assistant general secretary, said: "The UK desperately needs an interventionist long term industrial policy with manufacturing at its heart to create jobs.”
The summit comes against a background of more disappointing news on manufacturing employment.
The recent CIPD Labour Market Outlook says that unemployment could reach 2.85 million by the end of 2012, with the manufacturing sector leading the downward spiral.
Tony Burke, who will be attending the summit, added: "These figures are deeply worrying. Growth in the motor industry in the UK is at an all time high with some companies taking on new staff. Yet as these figures show, many other companies within manufacturing have put the brakes on any form of recruitment and in some cases are letting people go.
“This is leading to a loss of vital skills, undermining the government's claim that recruitment in the private sector will compensate for cuts in public sector jobs.
"We need a robust manufacturing strategy to create and maintain good skilled jobs. The government's strategy of turning back the clock to the 1980s with rehashed youth employment schemes and enterprise zones will not work. Neither will making it easier for bad bosses to sack people or allowing good jobs in aerospace and rail manufacturing to go."
Unite has published its strategy for manufacturing: Download the 2020 Vision strategy[http://www.unitetheunion.org/pdf/(JN3983)%20Manufacturing%202020%20Vision%20Final.pdf].
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