HC Deb 10 July 1975 vol 895 cc891-900

10.21 p.m.

Rev. Ian Paisley (Antrim, North)

It is a far cry from Ballymena to Westminster. Those of us who travel by British Airways at the present time find it much farther, and I am very happy tonight to have reached this debate just in time and no more. I am grateful to the hon. Lady the Member for Gloucester (Mrs. Oppenheim)—although I may not agree with the content of what she said—for keeping the House sitting a little longer so that I could arrive in time for this debate. I trust that the Minister, who will be replying on behalf of the Government, will also keep in mind the great difficulties at the airport in Belfast at the present time.

I am very glad that one of my colleagues from the other side of the House—the hon. Member for Kingswood (Mr. Walker),—will be participating in the debate so that the subject will be discussed across the Floor. I do not think that it is because he is the Second Church Commissioner that he is entering the debate, but simply because we have a common interest in this very vital matter.

Northern Ireland has a peculiar and terrible scourge that has been upon it since the foundation of the State. It is the scourge of unemployment, or compulsory idleness. Anyone who knows the demoralising effect of being unemployed can appreciate that it is the duty of every public representative in Northern Ireland at the present time, and also the duty of the Government, not only to attempt the great task of creating employment but also to seek to keep secure the jobs that Northern Ireland at present possesses.

I fully appreciate the efforts of the Minister, with whom I have been involved in many consultations and deputations, in helping us to defeat this scourge of unemployment in Northern Ireland at the present time. I wish him every success in his efforts. I am sure that I can say, on behalf of the rest of the United Ulster Unionists in this House, that we shall be happy at all times to help him. I am sure that all hon. Members from Northern Ireland—even those who do not frequent this Chamber too often—would also be with me in supporting his efforts to deal with this scourge of unemployment.

I am delighted to see that my hon. Friend the Member for Down, North (Mr. Kilfedder) has arrived. He had a similar experience to my own the other day, having had to be conveyed by fast car, breaking every regulation, in order to get us here just on time.

With regard to the G. B. Britton Ltd. factory in Ballymena, Ballymena has fortunately not the same average of unemployment as is general throughout the Province. My own constituency is rather a favoured one. I am not referring to its Member in this House, Mr. Deputy Speaker, having seen you smile. But we are fortunate in having only the same average of unemployment as the rest of the United Kingdom, whereas west of the Bann, as the Minister knows, there are some very black spots indeed, as there are in the southern parts of County Down. But if factories start closing in my area, and if the present trend continues, North Antrim would become a very bleak area indeed, and perhaps be brought down to the average or below the average. So it is essential that this House should be made aware of the position and that the Minister should have an opportunity to tell us exactly what he has in mind about the future of Britton's factory.

I want first to put to the right hon. Gentleman a series of questions. How long did the factory operate under its present management? What tenancy ageement did the firm have with the Ministry of Commerce in Northern Ireland, and what reliefs were given under that tenancy so that the company could operate its business? What grants of money, both direct and indirect, did the firm receive from his Ministry? What arrangements have been made for redundancy payments? How many people employed in the factory have been absorbed in other employment in the area?

The tragedy of the closing of the factory is that for some months before the closure the employees were concerned about what was to take place. I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman will confirm that I was in touch with him personally about the serious concern expressed to me by the employees of the factory.

I want to put it on record that the workmanship of the firm's employees was second to none. It would even come up to the standards of those working in your part of the United Kingdom, Mr. Deputy Speaker. They did a very good job. There were very few industrial disputes, and those that there were were very minor in nature. In fact, the workmanship of those employees was of a standard to make Ulster people proud.

The Minister assured me that, according to the information that he had, all was well and the factory would continue. He said that the employees could be assured of that. Then, one morning, over the Tannoy system of the factory there came the announcement out of the blue that the factory was to close.

Hon. Members can appreciate how the employees felt about that sudden announcement of very bad news. The House will appreciate, too, how I felt as the Member for the area, having made inquiries of the Minister and having conveyed the assurances which I received to the employees.

The amazing feature of this story is that the Ministry of Commerce and the Minister had no prior knowledge from the firm, although it had a very good tenancy agreement from the Ministry and although under that agreement it was bound to notify the Ministry. What is more, any inquiries made by the Department beforehand produced assurances that all was well.

It is too late to try to salvage anything from an operation like this once the announcement is made that a factory is to close and the rundown has commenced.

Mr. James Kilfedder (Down, North)

I am sure that my hon. Friend will agree that actions of this kind can sour good industrial relations in Northern Ireland at a time when we have far better indus- trial relations than exist in the remainder of the United Kingdom.

Rev. Ian Paisley

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. Of course, this did not lead to good relations between the firm and its employees. But the management was closing the factory, so it was not too perturbed about good relations.

I hope that the Minister will be able to give us some blink of light. I hope that the management will be able do something about employing those concerned in the future. Maybe it will not be possible to offer employment on the same scale, but employment on a smaller scale would be welcome. Of course, the Minister's job is made very difficult when the first he hears about this matter is a public announcement. We need the Minister to be on the ground floor. We need him to be in a position to talk about these problems before they come to a head, so that he can try to deal with them at an early stage. That is what we want to see happening in Northern Ireland.

I know that anyone engaged in commerce in Northern Ireland has a tremendous task. As the Minister knows, it is like a fireman trying to put out fires not with water but with oil. Of course, the fires blaze up far too brightly and too quickly. Those engaged in commerce have a colossal task. However, I trust that out of this difficulty a warning note will be sounded from the House. Management must pay attention to the fact that this is not the way that businesses have to be run down or closed. Employment must be regarded in human terms. We can discuss statistics and numbers, but behind those terms are human beings and life. Within that life there are hopes, aspirations and ambitions. When a person's employment is taken away from him a darkness is cast upon a life.

I am aware that there are great difficulties in the textile and shoe industries, but something must be done to prevent cheap imported footwear from coming into our country. That is essential. I am amazed that the management was importing cheap shoes, putting them into its boxes and undercutting its own manufactured article. How can it be that a person doing a good job of work for a company in the footwear industry can have a secure job when the market is overloaded with cheap footwear coming from countries where there is nothing but practically sweated labour? I suggest to the Minister that the time has come for the Government to do something about these cheap imports.

10.33 p.m.

Mr. Terry Walker (Kingswood)

I am pleased to take part in this debate. The problems of Britton of Ballymena are nearly the same as the problems of Britton of Kingswood in my constituency. When I had an Adjournment debate on 20th January I talked about the plight of the footwear industry in Kingswood and at Britton in particular. I underlined the crisis that faces Kingswood. At that time we were on short-time working and the factory at Brynmawr, South Wales, had been closed for production purposes. Since then we have had the closing of the Ballymena factory. In my constituency Britton has made over 200 people redundant.

Two things have been done by the Government since then, and they represent most welcome action. First, there has been an inquiry. Secondly, there has been an agreement reached with the COMECON countries for a 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. cut in their sales of men's leather-uppered footwear in 1975. Both those steps are welcome, but neither goes far enough. The inquiry will take at least 12 months. By that time most of the British footwear manufacturers will be in the grave difficulties that now face Britton. The workers will be on the dole. The steps taken as regards the COMECON countries are piecemeal because it must be realised by the Government that 50 per cent. of our imports of footwear comes from France and Italy and other countries within the Common Market. Imports from within the EEC countries and the Far East are rising even now. We need import controls if we are to protect our industry. I believe that if it was made clear to the EEC Commission that temporary measures were necessary there would be a fair chance of these being implemented.

Britton Ltd. is part of the Ward White Group of Northampton, and last year when I raised in my constituency the fact that the workers were on a four-day week I was castigated by the local managing director for scaremongering. I was told that everything was safe and there would be no redundancies. It was, I was told, a matter of playing for time. Nevertheless a few months later the same managing director made 200 men redundant. The company has not been honest or frank with the unions, the workers or the Government. It has given assurances to the Government. The Under-Secretary for Industry repeated in the House assurances which had come from the management in Kingswood that the jobs would be saved. The Brynmawr factory has been closed and now the same has happened at Ballymena. In Kingswood we have suffered 250 redundancies, and we are on the slippery slope again.

What can be done about this? Apart from the problems arising from the imports of footwear into the United Kingdom, it has recently been revealed that another potential danger faces the industry. It is the fact that uppers are being brought into the country from Brazil. They are being advertised by the company BSL Agencies—Brazil Shoe and Leather—and it is open to receive orders for leather uppers already cut and closed. I have seen invoices and samples of these uppers which are available to the industry, and it is obvious from the price quoted that they represent a nice source of unfair imports from a low-cost country.

The firm is capitalised by a Japanese company, and the manufacturing centre is in Brazil. The uppers are allowed to enter the United Kingdom completely duty free until it is considered that they do harm to the home industry. This must not be allowed to continue. We ask the Government to take action now to protect the people not only in Ballymena and Kingswood but in the whole of the British footwear manufacturing industry.

10.38 p.m.

The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. Stanley Orme)

The Government welcome this debate. When we heard that the hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) was having difficulties getting here, we knew that he was tenacious enough even if he had to fly himself. I assured my officials in the House that he would he here, and sure enough he is.

This is a very difficult case. I thank the hon. Member for what he said about what the Government and I as a Minister have sought to do about employment in Northern Ireland, not least in connection with this factory.

The Ballymena factory had its origin in the company of Wm. Clarke & Sons Ltd. Clarke's did a certain amount of cutting and closing of TUF uppers, and when it decided to close in 1958 the factory was leased to G. B. Britton. A new factory of 6,050 sq. ft. was built by the Department of Commerce for Britton's and has been extended on three occasions to its present size of 50,550 sq. ft. By 1966 the labour force had built up to a peak of 800 but earlier this year had dropped to 400–125 males. In 1973 the company was acquired by the Ward White Shoe Group.

I have been given the figure of a 21-year tenancy standard lease which was given to Britton's. The total of grants and extensions to the factory since 1959 has been £287,000. Normally we do not disclose details of grants of this nature, but I think it is right that they should be given on this occasion.

On 14th May the closure of the unit was announced without prior consultation with me or the Department of Commerce. The main reason given for the closure was that cheap imports had caused a sudden reduction of sales from 230,000 pairs a week to 160,000 pairs a week. On Friday 13th June 220 workers were made redundant.

My extreme displeasure at the way the closure took place was made known to the firm. This is not the way to deal with industry in 1975 and the hon. Member for Antrim, North is right to raise this matter as he has done tonight.

We had to try to take action to save the company. Several discussions were held with the firm, and a meeting was called at which the hon. Member for Antrim, North was present, together with Briton's managing director, trade union representatives, Department of Commerce officials, Members of Parliament, the Mayor of Ballymena, elected representatives of the town and myself.

The question of cheap imports was raised at the meeting, and I made direct representations to my noble Friend the Minister of State for Industry. The Government was extremely concerned about cheap imports, both of footwear and textiles. It should be pointed out that some of these imports were being bought by Britton's. The numbers were limited, but some people may see a curious contradiction in this practice, which is also carried out by other firms.

Various schemes for saving jobs at Britton's were considered in great detail. Of the workers who had already gone, only 10 have found jobs elsewhere. In a frank exchange of views, we explored with the firms whether it could ease the situation and provide other employment by bringing other products to the plant at Ballymena so that it could be kept open. During the period when the factory was to have closed, the firm agreed to keep it open while negotiations went on. The Government assisted them. The firm is anxious to bring new products to Ballymena, and I hone it is successful. We will give every assistance we can, but it is not possible to keep the firm open in the interim period.

The difficulties arise in terms of the cost of the present product, and in consequence, unfortunately, the firm will have to close. But it is hoped if possible to bring in another product in the autumn. The firm could then be restarted, and the first choice would lie in the direction of previous employees of G. B. Britton. We hope to see the work force built up again.

The hon. Gentleman fairly said that Ballymena is not an area of high unemployment, and he referred to areas of Northern Ireland with a far higher level of unemployment. But, as he said, unemployment anywhere is bad, and, of course, I agree with him. It is bad for the person who finds himself out of work and bad for his family. Unfortunately, in the present economic climate the attempt to get investment into various areas and to create new factories is not an easy one. Obviously we must try to preserve the employment that already exists. My job at the moment in Northern Ireland—we dealt with this matter in the Northern Ireland Committee yesterday—is to try to maintain employment.

I think I have dealt with most of the points which have been raised—

Rev. Ian Paisley

Will the Minister deal with terms of redundancy?

Mr. Orme

There will be the normal redundancy payments. I shall examine the situation to see whether the payments are being properly implemented, and I am sure they are. I shall raise the matter with the manpower people in the Department to ensure that all these matters are followed through. The workers in the plant will receive the normal redundancy payments, and I shall try to expedite the matter, if it is at all possible.

The Government welcome this debate, and we thank the hon. Gentleman for raising the subject. We have had the matter under active consideration. We hope that the proposals from G. B. Britton will create employment once again in the shoe industry in the autumn. In the meantime, we shall try to find fresh employment for the people concerned and continue our endeavours to attract employment to Northern Ireland, which needs it so desperately.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twelve minutes to Eleven o'clock.