Dear colleagues
Here in Belfast we have at the time of this story roughly around 4000 employees, I will disregard the CLF at this juncture, out of those 4000 employees around 600 are managerial graded positions which equates to approxiametly 1 manager for every 6/7 employees, this is public sector type levels and as proven totally unsustainable but in reality we have managers in charge of up to 100 reports and managers with no direct reports at all! They have asked us to be more efficient and to challange the way things are done but heres my challange to them, quantify how you expect ordinary shopfloor workers to change the mindset of instituionalised bullying management here in Belfast when we have so many layers of management, beurocracy and red tape to go through? Inefficient is too kind a word to use but it will have to suffice on this occasion, managers dont lose their jobs for being inefficient or even incompetant they are just moved around departments until they reach the point were they can get their golden handshakes and ride off into the sunset very well off and probably a BUPA sponsored anal exam for them and their entire family whilst having offered next to almost nothing in the way of progressing the company in their later years or in some cases ever.
We as a shopfloor unit are the best that there is here in Belfast we continually fix the many mistakes made by these low wage alternatives and due to our humilty we tend not to get all high five about it, we just want to work for a company who respect us and treat us fairly and pay us fairly.
In recent years we have tried to challange the norm, tried to expose the inefficiency of Belfasts management structure but Canada are either turning a blind eye or the information isnt getting through,some of us have put our heads above the horizon and have saved Bombardier hundreds of thousands of dollars through using the xcell system but yet we receive very little in gratuity whilst our many layers of management take most of the plaudits and also a performance related bonus, we take home £17.50 for our effort!
Bombardier management here in Belfast are too institutionalised too arrogant and too blasie about our current position, maybe theyre all supremly confident in their own ability which in my humble opinion is rather misplaced as I wouldnt trust a majority of them to run a bath let alone an ailing aircraft company, none of them have what it takes to steer us through this, none of them have the experience nor the desire,and what is the retoric being convayed to the shopfloor, we must work harder, we must take paycuts, we must work longer hours yet we are the guys and girls who clock in and out, we are the producers who create profits yet we are the ones who suffer the vitriol from an over payed underskilled heirarchy that stands in the way of progress.Maybe its a plain fact that the way in which Bombardier and previously Shorts in Belfast have a "jobs for the boys" type promotion system for the past 40-50 years that managers now feel beyond reproach even through the worst Bombardier crisis in its history.Michael Ryan calls them to management meetings every so often, im not sure if Michael burdens most of the worries to a certain point before taking them to task or its due to the fact it takes 3 days to brief his entire harem due to the sheer numbers involved but either way theres a real lack of urgency amongst the management and it shows us that our fate is sealed.
We have overheard and seen various managers salivating about how they were going to just take voluntary redundancies rather than stay and earn their wages and try and get us out of this mess whilst others are saying its not Belfasts problem as we are making better than predicted returns, just what is the story? we post profits year on year as a unit but not enough!Again I challange Bombardier to convince the shopfloor staff of Belfast what it is that you are going to do to help us? We dont buy your "higher value" work b---s---, work is work and we should be fighting to keep everything here.
I have a suspicion it will be business as usual for Belfast, the same old out of date and out of touch heirarchy of managment with more layers than an onion continue to coin in the wages for doing absolutely nothing constructive other than seeing out their days with the hope of a big pay out. On the other hand the rest of us, we made a huge mistake by allowing Bombardier to use CLF, Bombardier and our unions are the only ones who have really benfitted from the CLF by increasing their membership subsidies to central headquarters which in itself is an utter disgrace and abuse of their power and all full time voting members should be urged to contact the head office of Unite and GMB and ask why our union take money from our colleagues who have no voting rights and who cannot take industrial action should it arise which are the basic fundemental rights of being a union member.
Its like this some of us have been here a long time, a lifetime in fact and have been through some real tough times, there is an atmosphere within the company now that can never be redressed, we know it and you certainly know it, our jobs are destined for Mexico, Morrocco, China or some other cheap labour ghetto as Bombardier have brought in butchers like jim vounassis who are only interested in the bottom line and profit margins, he has history here in Northern Ireland as the guy who shut the Baker Hughes factory inspite of the huge governent grants the company received over the years and the best efforts of our goverment to keep the jobs here, I very much suspect thats were we are heading with Bombardier the only difference is that we are not gullible enough to think that a 20% reduction will save our jobs longer term, nor am I prepared to take pay cuts, longer working hours or any changes to my terms and conditions of employment under any circumstances nor would the vast majority of Belfast, you see we think Bombardiers Belfast management are full of sh-- to be honest but dont feel I am singling out just belfast as I think Bellamare and the rest of the board are full of sh-- also, big men with expensive suits and designer y-fronts are not exactly sending shivers down to my toes nor will I stand for this 20% contempteous figure one moment longer, we have a saying in Belfast "youll not get a wing", its an old saying from generations ago but it rings very true literally at this present time.
Personally I dont want to see any of us losing our jobs but its going to happen, we have chinless wonders pretending to represent us both in the unions and government. All we can hope for is with the death of Bombardier we see a rise in local entrepreneurs willing to fill the voids left behind by this debt ridden, tax dodging, public funded private parasite.
The times are a changing and the small people, the ordinary people, the decent people need to stand up and fight these corporate whores not each other! We have started the process already by rejecting that ridiculous pay offer, we have nothing to lose now our jobs are going but we must stick together and we can beat them, im not offering job security here but neither are they but what is on offer is the sweet taste of justice, this company brought no aerospace experience whatsoever to the table when they bought shorts they then chased off Boeing and other 3rd party work out of sheer arrogance and with no regard for a future here, they have drained us of skills and money for decades and now they think they're going to just dump us like were some cheap tart. Lets beat it right up them and show them what we're made off here in Ulster!