Bitter
sweets
Recent events in York are causing concern and anxiety across sections of
the population there with regard to job losses and the consequences.
Not long ago, Terrys, that well known
producer of chocolate, put considerable numbers of people out of work . This
has now been followed by Nestle-Rowntree where the production of certain lines
of chocolate and sweet products is being transferred to Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy.
Unemployment has been a problem throughout
the EU. To attract work special concessions and substantial inducements are
used to induce firms to outsource their business in an attempt to alleviate the
situation. Loyalty of workers who have helped build an industry is of little
consequence, nor is the knock-on effect on local communities. The main
beneficiaries of course are the companies.
Another firm outsourcing work, this time to India, is the York office of Norwich Union. Something like 450 people
will lose their jobs. People who are forced to use Indian call centres are
increasingly frustrated by language difficulties, wrong information and poor
service.
Next year the York sugar beet factory will close. This will have
consequences for 1,300 farmers, over 100 factory workers, transporters and
others indirectly involved. Talk of transporting beet to factories in the South
East is spurious nonsense from the cost point of view and the resulting
environmental pollution. There is a crazy situation where sugar production in Britain nowhere meets our domestic needs. Cane sugar is
imported from afar. In addition the CAP has resulted in massive overproduction
of sugar in the EU. Some of this is being dumped on African countries at a
price below their production costs which causes unemployment, dire poverty and
economic migration. Rational planning and diversification have also been dumped
and are a requirement of fair trade.
[Return to
Democrat index]
[To subscribe to Democrat] (members
receive each issue free through the post)
[Membership
form]
[Order form for
material]
[Details
about our Campaign against Euro-federalism]
[Home page]
[top]