letter from european works council to management of kion gmbh.
position statement on the planned closure of merthyr.

gentlemen,
much to their regret,members of the EWC and the shop stewaeds of linde heavy truck didvision merthyr.the closure of the plant is dramatic in variuos respects.
1) many problems that have led to the closure of the site are attributed to grave management mistakes and shortcomings.these mistakes have been made in various areas in the heavy truck division.examples are design errors that have led to enormous warranty costs and the development of products that were not profitable and largly failed to fulfill market requirements.
due to lack of control from both basingstoke and aschaffenburg , the weakness in the accounting processes as well as "aggressive accounting" and a lack of honesty that were discovered by KPMG have been hused up for years.
substantial weaknesses in data processing , inventory management and logistics have repeatedly caused significiant losses.
mistakes in the organisation of work as described in the last KMPG study, i;e frequent changes of management personnel and managing directors,have not alloewed those in charge to identify and remedy problems in the past.what had made the overall situation was the fact that these managers and managing directors kept making the same mistakes.it is therefore particuarly tragicthat the workforce of merthyr now as to pay for those shortcomings with losing their jobs and risking thier livelihoods.

there is more but can't type no more. pracie it down to merthyr as all ready got double unemployment rate than the average for the UK.career opportunities in the region are very poor.
from me; this is a highly skilled workforce who as been let down from above. everything that as been asked of us we've done , from flexible banked hours to overtime to keep the trucks rolling out to customer's as been done.
now mr Frikse said we will be looked after but seems the redundancy pot is in favour of the people above us?someone in a shirt and tie is gonna get more for a few years over a grafter who has 20plus!!
moral is very low on the shop floor?? and yes we'll have forced banked hours thrown on us to fullil order's before they shut us!