Darrall Cozens: Sean, what is the situation at the moment in relation to the mood of the workforce and so on? 

Sean Leahy: Well, we are getting more strongly organised in terms of more people joining the union, getting on to doubling the size of the union membership there. That is very good as we now represent a majority amongst the workforce when we exclude the management. We have had a couple of mass meetings. At this moment we are not talking to the company about redundancies as we are still trying to oppose the closure.

We think that we have got a tool to challenge the company with as they have not carried out proper consultations on this issue with the local managers. We have also talked to other unions in Europe about this lack of consultation. We have also talked to the government and to local councillors but we have also said to the workforce that if we want to get more help and if we want to move Ericsson on this issue, then we need to have a more visible campaign amongst the membership.

We have got some strengths in relation to the plant closure. On the face of it, there may be the danger that people may feel that there is little we can do about it but we have got things that the company wants. For example there is the issue of the ordinary transfer of knowledge that we will not cooperate with until it has been agreed in the consultation process. We are fighting over that at the moment. We had the first consultation meeting yesterday. Lots of the members turned up to greet the management reps as they went into the meeting. It was a small demonstration of support for what the trade union reps are trying to achieve. So at the moment it is small scale things as we try to build up the support and we are building support for the union.

DC: So the mood is quite buoyant at the moment.

SL: Yes, it is buoyant. I think that Ericsson thought it was going to be a done deal, that consultation is just a farce. They thought that they were just going to roll ahead but I think that we are having some impact.

DC: From previous meetings that we have had in the labour movement in Coventry is has emerged that there are between 700 and 800 workers there almost wholly engaged in research and development for telecommunication products. Is that correct?

SL: That’s right. And this is a major thing that we have brought up with the government. The industry is strategically important for the UK. It is practically the only R&D centre for telecoms. It is one of the industries of the future and it is important for the green economy. Up to now the government has found it difficult to defend manufacturing jobs in the UK as they have been moving to low cost countries. And this is important because for the first time we have a major European company taking the decision to move all of its R&D out of the UK and base it in low cost countries.

DC: So the potential closure of the plant would not only be a tremendous blow to the workers, their families and their standard of living but also in relation to the knowledge and skills and experience that they’ve got and the dispersal of that would be a terrible blow to the development of the economy.

SL: That’s right. We think that the government needs to review its strategy. I don’t think it’s got one. It doesn’t seem to know what to do about it. The government wasn’t even involved by Ericsson in advance of the decision. Even the local management did not know about the decision to close the plant. They only found out about it an hour before the workers were told. The government wasn’t told in advance. They were shocked by it. But they haven’t got a strategy to deal with it at the moment. Coventry City Council has been quite supportive to us. They are concerned about it because there have been loads invested by the West Midlands in the site. The West midlands Regional Development Council have put in about £40 million for the infrastructure, for the site, £10m for the roads that are actually still being completed at this moment. The main road into the site for example has still not got its lights switched on.

DC: So it has been public money poured into a private company and a few months after it was opened it is closing.

SL: I think that locally we fought very hard for Ericsson to invest in the region and we were successful. And even now it is going to cost them a lot of money to leave the building as they actually paid for it. The building by the way could be in Sweden as it is a bespoke site. And it is a great new building to work in. It is just crazy. We all went in there with everyone feeling on a high. And then only three months later the whole place is going to be mothballed. It is incredible, unbelievable!

DC: You have obviously had contact with the government and through the local MPs, but what sort of strategy are you looking for from the government as you did say that there seems to be the absence of a strategy at the moment?

SL: Well, first of all we wanted them to do what they could to change Ericsson’s decision. But of course they will argue that they have no real power to do that. They can ask but if they don’t get, what then? But I don’t think that it has to stop there. The government has spoken to Ericsson but they haven’t been willing to review their decision. OK, there are local ways of getting money into the region to help with individual packages of redeployment. But this is crazy because of the value of all those skills that have to be organised.

DC: It seems crazy, doesn’t it, that the government is willing to pump £billions into the banks where real wealth is not created, but in manufacturing like your area it is cast aside, it has no strategy for it?

SL: Yes, all of those workers are thrown into the wind. Some of them may end up working in Tescos or some may end up in teaching where they will be valuable but by and large they will be scattered to the wind and that advantage that we had in R&D in this country in Telecomms will be completely lost. It will even impact on areas like security which will be in the hands of foreign companies operating outside the UK. Ericsson is Swedish, a multinational, but at least it had the workforce here in the UK. With the current plans all the skills will be lost completely.

DC: As a senior staff rep in UNITE your job is obviously to give a lead in this situation, but the dangers sometimes in giving a lead are that you can get way ahead of the members in the kind of lead that you are giving. The reason I am saying that is that you are looking for a strategy for the government to come in maybe with subsidies or something like that to keep the company going, but has the question been raised in the discussions that you have been having of the public ownership of the company to retain the skills, to retain the development base?

SL: Not fully, no. Not in terms of the government completely taking it over. I think that that is major step from the current position where both of the major parties support the free market. To get the government to do something like that we would have to have a lot more strength than we have at the moment. But short of that there is a role that the government could play in terms of coming up with some investment to try and save the workforce at Ansty Park, maybe in conjunction with money from Europe, or Ericsson could possibly leave something or find other partners.

DC: What kind of support have you had from the national union UNITE?

SL: We have had good support. They have given us all the support that we have asked for. They have helped us to get the campaign going. They have opened doors for us wherever they could. But you can’t expect the union to come in and do the job for us. And we have to tell our members that.

DC: Because the union is the membership.

SL: Yes, that’s right.

DC: So at the moment leading up to Christmas the situation looks very hopeful with a buoyant mood and the determination to win.

SL: Absolutely, yes.

DC: Wonderful. Thank you Sean for the interview. That’s brilliant. 

SL: Thanks.