82% Of People Think British Companies Should Be Legally Required To Consult

More than eight out of ten (82%) people believe that companies should be legally required to discuss their closure plans with their workforce, according to a MORI poll for the Transport and General Workers' Union, the UK's largest manufacturing union. The poll is released on the day T&G General Secretary Bill Morris attacked "the unacceptable face of corporate decision making we have seen from Vauxhall in Luton, Ford in Dagenham and Rover in Longbridge," where workers found out about factory closures from the media.

Bill Morris called for the British Government to sign up to the EU Information and Consultation Directive saying:

"It seems that industry and Government have learned nothing from these recent debacles."

"At a stroke, British ministers could end this shameful practice of keeping workers in the dark by putting pen to paper and signing the EU Information and Consultation Directive. The public wants it, workers deserve it and the Government should do it."

Bill Morris, as President of the Trades Union Congress, will be part of the TUC General Council delegation campaigning in Luton today in support of Vauxhall workers. Pledging to continue the campaign for a level playing field for British workers with the rest of Europe, Bill Morris will tell workers:

"The T&G will take the fight to reverse Vauxhall's decision to the highest level of decision making in General Motors. On Monday 15th January, we will go to Zurich to meet GM's European head and I still stand ready to go to Detroit, if that is what it takes to get this decision reversed."

The T&G have received letters in support of Vauxhall workers from the American and Canadian autoworkers unions.

Technical details

• On behalf of the T&G, MORI interviewed a nationally representative sample of 996 members of the general public aged 15+. Interviews were conducted by telephone between 15th and 17th December 2000. Data are weighted to reflect the known population profile.
• Respondents were asked to select from a list of options, what action, if any, they think a large company should be legally required to do before making a final decision to move to a country outside Britain: 82% of respondents said they should be required to discuss their plans with their workforce; 85% said they should make plans to minimise the effect the closure will have on the local community; 83% said they should be required to consider alternative plans.

General Motors / Vauxhall Topline

• A total of 996 interviews were conducted among a representative sample of adults, aged 15+, living in Britain
• Interviews were conducted by telephone between 15 and 17 December 2000
• Quotas were set for sex, age, social class and region to reflect the population profile of adults living in telephone owning households
• Data are also weighted by sex, age, social class and region to reflect the population profile of adults living in telephone owning households
• Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to multiple responses, computer rounding or the exclusion of 'don't know/not stated' response categories
• An asterisk (*) represents a value of less than one per cent, but not zero
• Results are based on all unless otherwise stated

As you may have heard, General Motors have recently decided to close its Vauxhall car production plant at Luton, and move to a country outside Britain.

Q1 Which of the following, if any, do you think a large company which decides to close down and move to a country outside Britain should be legally required to do before making a final decision....?

Q2 If a large company does decide to move to a country outside Britain without consultation, do you think they should or should not have to repay any financial support they have received from the British Government?