Australia: Unions refuse to fight GM's latest plant closure

The Holden decision reportedly came after Daewoo in South Korea, another GM subsidiary, said it would stop using the engine in its car production after 2009. It follows a series of downsizings by Holden in Australia, including 600 job cuts at its Elizabeth plant in northern Adelaide in March 2007, and the axing of 200 jobs at its Fishermans Bend plant at the end of 2006. In September 2005, the company announced plans to slash 1,400 jobs at the Elizabeth plant. In less than three years, it has reduced its Australian workforce by almost a thirdGM now employs about 3,100 people in Victoria and 6,500 nationally.

GMs cuts are part of a broader decimation of what remains of the car industry in Australia. Ford announced last year it would axe up to 600 jobs at its Geelong plant, starting in 2010, after slashing 640 jobs at its Broadmeadows facility at the end of 2006. In March this year, Mitsubishi closed its remaining Australian assembly plant, in Adelaide, at the cost of nearly 1,000 jobs.

As the car industry unions have done in every case, they verbally protested the latest Holden job losses, while making clear they would conduct no campaign to defend jobs or challenge the companys plans. Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) car division federal secretary Ian Jones said Holdens decision would cause workers and their families significant hardship but offered no alternative, declaring instead he wanted to negotiate with Holden over starting other manufacturing.

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