Labour must step up to help JLR supply chain jobs, says Unite

A union has said the Labour Party needs to “step up” and help workers from supply-chain firms affected by the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) shutdown following a cyber-attack.

The car-maker’s production lines have been at a standstill for more than a fortnight, with concerns growing some companies reliant on the brand’s business could go bust without support.

Jason Richards, Unite’s regional officer for the West Midlands, said thousands or tens of thousands of people could be laid off if there was no positive news from JLR, which has plants in Wolverhampton, Solihull and Merseyside.

Minister for Industry Chris McDonald said JLR was taking the lead on support for its own supply chain.

He said cyber experts continued to support JLR to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

“Yesterday I met West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker to discuss the effect the shutdown at Jaguar Land Rover is having on the region, and we agreed to keep in close touch while the company works to get production up and running again,” he added.

A spokesperson for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said they held an extraordinary meeting of their automotive components section on Friday, which was attended by officials from the Department for Business and Trade.

“This allowed us to listen to suppliers directly and understand the challenges and concerns they are facing,” the two organisations said in a joint statement.

In response, JLR said it welcomed the meeting, and said it was an important move to identify challenges that businesses were facing following the cyber attack.

“I don’t want to be pessimistic, and I don’t want to sensationalise this, but I really am concerned about the issue we find ourselves in,” said Mr Richards.

“Members within the automotive supply chain… some employers are laying off with pay, some employers are laying off on reduced pay, some employers are introducing interim banked hours agreements… but some are laying off without pay.

“They’ll get the statutory award of £39 a day for five days, and then after the five days they get zero and they’re being signposted to universal credit,” he told BBC Radio WM.

Mr Richards suggested that a furlough-type scheme could be introduced by the government, but added that he understood there was not a “magic money tree”.

“We’re having very little feedback from government – the Labour Party was farmed by the trade union movement… it’s time for the Labour Party to step up.”

Umesh Samani, chairman of the Independent Motor Dealers Association, based in Stoke-on-Trent, which has more than 1,000 members, said most independent dealers were saying they were not currently badly affected.

However he said the lack of clarity around when operations at JLR could begin again was an issue.

“The bigger companies probably can ride the storm a little bit longer but the smaller ones in the supply chain… there’s no way they can continue,” he said.

He said he agreed the government needed to step in.

“They’ve got to do something – otherwise there’s going to be so many small businesses going bust, so they’ve got to try and help alleviate the situation,” Mr Samani said.

Conservative MP for Meriden and Solihull East, Saqib Bhatti, was one of those who wrote to Chancellor Rachel Reeves – he told the BBC government support needed to be “proactive and robust”.

“I’ve asked for a short-term loan scheme where the government convenes all the banks, and they ask the banks to come up with a solution on this,” he said.

“What I want is for the government to get those banks in a room to come up with a special loan facility; they will absolutely have the templates to do that.”

He also asked for insurers to deal with claims quickly.

“Do not dither and delay; there are jobs at stake here, there are businesses at stake here. We need real action,” he said.

“Anyone you speak to will recognise that Jaguar Land Rover and our automotive sector is in our DNA as West Midlanders.

“This is really, really important, and if the supply chain goes, this could have a huge amount of ramifications – because once people leave the workforce, it’s really hard to get them back.”