Employers and unions unite to repel backdoor invader
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HE LOUD cries of "unfair" rvhich have followed the reveation that the Hino invasion has vrived are as much a symptom ri surprise as anger. Everyone mew that the Irish Harris enter)rise wanted to sell its Japanese /elides in Britain, but few ex)ected over 70 lorries to slip un-_ .soticed through Liverpool and 'leetwood docks, or for the )eginnings of a dealer network o be established without the inJustry grapevine springing into iction, writes ALAN MILLAR.
But it took, from May, when -ICV Motor Vehicle Distributors Ad moved into a 42,000sqft facory in Warrington, until August or the invasion to be disco,ered. Now, employers and mions at ERF, Fodens, Leyland /ehicles, and Seddon Atkinson re united in their opposition to he Anglo-Irish-Japanese project Ind are determined to make life mpossible, or at least difficult or HCV.
A symbol of that united ap)roach was the financial support he companies provided last veek for a 50-man union delegaion which lobbied the Trades Jnion Contress in Brighton. -hey may have failed to have an imergency resolution debated luring the TUC's economic ses,ion, but they did attract attenion outside, and Amalgamated Jnion of Engineering Workers eaders Terry Duffy and Ken Gill soth mentioned the Hino plans n their addresses.
The union men I spoke to in 3righton were all determined hat HCV should be stopped at ill costs. They hoped to have the natter raised at a Confederation rf Shipbuilding and Engineering Jnions meeting in London this veek and are formulating plans or a mass picket at the Warringon premises later this month. Their biggest fear is that HCV vill take up its option to assem)le Hino kits on an adjacent site, sut they are equally keen not to save any vehicles sold in Britain. -hey are canvassing support rom component suppliers who night see an outlet for their prolucts at HCV, and claim to have upport from the Transport and 3eneral Workers' Union for a :ampaign to persuade drivers to
black Hinos which their employers buy.
The North-west lorry builders are proud men who believe that their products can stand the test of fair competition, but in their eyes, the Hino is unfair competition. "If Hino starts up in Britain, no British manufacturer will come out of recession," one of them said, and they all are convinced that the Japanese industry is prepared to lose money in Britain for a long enough period in order to gain a share of the market, by which time domestic builders will have gone to the wall.
But these union men do not want similar policies to be adopted by their employers. They do want to see an easing of interest rates, but they don't want subsidies. One of the ERF men told me: "Our Wrexham factory, which would have been built on profits, has been put on ice by the recession. We don't need grants, we only want fiveday working."
Much of the anger surrounds the breaking of a gentleman's agreement between the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association that Japan will not sell commercial vehicles of over 3.5 tonnes on the British market. HCV denies all knowledge of such an agreement, and in any case, claims that the Hino is as much an Irish —and thus European Economic Community — vehicle as a Japanese one.
Hence Terry Duffy's claim that this is a back door import. "The Japanese don't bother with complying with the terms of an agreement," he told TUC.
As far as HCV is concerned, the three models it is launching on the British market are becoming more and more British. The company says the brakes are made by Bendix Westinghouse, the wheels and tyres are British, the Triplex glass is British, and there are plans ultimately to assemble the vehicles in Warrington using Scottish-built Cummins engines, Fuller gearboxes, Eaton rear axles, and Britishpressed chassis frames. In addition, they have Lucas Kienzle tachographs which, while made in Germany, are sold through a Birmingham base.
Efforts are also being made to substitute British components for some of the Japanese parts 'used at present, in order to reduce the cost of spares and to .make the vehicles more attractive to existing fleet operators. The company also says that Harris spend some E3m every year on British parts, and that business might be lost if the Warrington project should turn sour. What everyone's afraid of is HCV's pricing. The company is keeping very quiet about that detail, saying only that it plans to price the HE tractive unit somewhere between Volvo's F7 and F10. If that is the case — and there is no evidence to suggest that it isn't — then HCV can hardly be accused of dumping. On the other hand, there is a • myriad of discount deals which can be attached to any sales package as almost every maker on the British market knows from its own experience. Certainly, HCV, which, while not tied financially to Harris, is working in close association with it — has chosen an interesting time to move into Britain. Its Irish management says that trades union opposition will be diluted by the prospect of some 300 jobs being created in Warrington, which is helping mop up surplus Merseyside labour.
Ethics may go down the drain when jobs are being dangled on a recession-hit horizon, even although the lobbyists at Brighton were predicting a net loss of many thousands of jobs if their employers disappear.
The British employers' approach is interesting, too. In 1978, when faced with only the threat of Hino appearing on the market, they were outwardly aggressive in their anti-Japanese line. Fodens chief executive Bill Foden told CM then: "It is no good crying after the event. ,They've got to be stopped now." Admittedly, his hands are tied by the presence of receivers at Fodens, and he can only "note" the HCV developments, but his unfettered competitors have been fairly reticent in public.
Leyland, which has led the opposition this time,has enlisted the support of the unions and has roped in Seddon Atkinson and ERF. SA has written to local MPs and to trades union chiefs, as well as complaining to Trade Secretary John Nott. All complain about a "Japanese smokescreen", but, ironically, they too seem to prefer to work beyond the glare of direct publicity.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders — which HCV is not yet entitled to join, as it has not been in business for 12 months— is lobbying on the manufacturers' behalf. It is in regular contact with the Department of Trade and Industry, and was due to discuss it with JAMA in Tokyo this week.
The Hino may only be an imagined threat, but both manufacturers' and unions' views are probably summed up by AUEW official Len Brindle who told CM that he is approaching the issue with the "utmost priority and urgency". And he predicts: "There will be no messing about. Hino is going to have a battle on its hands." Time will tell who wins.