A journey to the Commons with the Bombardier's Spirit of Derby

A journey to the Commons with the Bombardier's Spirit of Derby

00:05, 8 September 2011

By Matt Roper

THE train was named the Spirit of Derby – and nothing could have better summed up the pride, passion and indignation contained within its carriages.

A delegation of 200 workers, business people and councillors supporting the train construction company Bombardier (Pic: PA)

THE train was named the Spirit of Derby – and nothing could have better summed up the pride, passion and indignation contained within its carriages.

Occupying every seat in the 05.52 from Derby to London was someone who felt deeply, often personally, the Government’s betrayal of Britain’s last train manufacturer.

In coaches A and B were councillors from all parties, along with union reps and business leaders. Political foes on any other day, but yesterday united in fighting a common cause.

And in coaches C to E, more than 100 Bombardier workers, all fearing for their future, travelling together to the House of Commons in London to make their message heard.

The way they came – on a train they had built themselves – said more than their words ever could. And as it zipped through the countryside, the Spirit of Derby was a powerful reminder of their workmanship and skill – and a symbol of everything at stake.

Among the workers – each wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Keep Rail Manufacturing on Track” – was 60-year-old Joe Woods.

The Government’s decision to make German company Siemens the preferred bidder for a 1,200- carriage Thameslink contract spells disaster for Joe.

He now faces being unemployed for the first time in his life after working at Bombardier for the past 45 years.

Joe said: “I can’t afford to take voluntary redundancy, because my wife is ill and can’t work, but I don’t think I’ll be given a choice.

“I’ll have to try to find a job ­somewhere else, but I’m 60, who’s going to have me? I just can’t understand it, I can’t see the logic of giving the contract to a foreign company. How is that viable for the country? How is it supposed to help British ­manufacturing? My dad was a Tory councillor and he’d have been horrified by what this Government has done.

“They were elected to represent Britain but they’ve betrayed us. I feel desperately let down, but I also feel like I’m letting down the next generation, because I don’t have the chance to pass on my knowledge and skills.”

Sitting opposite – with his dad Darren – was Anthony Barber, 25, who has been employed as an agency worker and is certain to be laid off.

He said: “I’m living with my girlfriend and I’m the breadwinner in the house. If I lose my job we won’t be able to afford the rent.

“I’m scared. If hundreds of workers who are more highly skilled than me suddenly find themselves on the dole, how am I going to find another job?

“I’m going to have to retrain in another job, start everything again from scratch.”

His dad Darren, 42, said: “If my son had lost his job and I was still working I’d obviously do everything I could to get him back on his feet. But what if I lose my job too? It hurts to think that I wouldn’t be able to help my own son.”

If Bombardier is forced to go ahead with plans to lay off 14,000 staff, many other families will be torn apart.

Nick Jellyman, 46, here with his son Kane, 19, said: “Both my dad and my grandad worked there all their lives. My son assumed he would too.

“It’s a scandalous betrayal to allow the last train builder in Britain to die.

“It’s causing an awful lot of stress and anxiety – we don’t know what we’re going to do.

“But we felt we had to come to London today to show people how this ludicrous decision by the Government is affecting families like ours. We have to keep the fight alive, keep hoping that it’s not the end.”

In the seat behind was Leverne Vasey, 45, whose family has been here before. When Bombardier closed its doors in their home town of Shildon, Durham, 26 years ago, her husband Brian accepted a transfer to Derby. His brother Sidney went to Doncaster.

Now Leverne, who also works at Bombardier, fears the same will happen again, and she and Brian will have to leave their two grown-up daughters in Derby to go in search of jobs elsewhere.

She said: “I’ve already had my daughter in tears because they think we’ll have to move away. My husband has worked with the company for 32 years, it’s all he knows. He doesn’t even know how to attend a job interview.

“We make so many sacrifices to stay in work and to have your Government take it away from you is a kick in the teeth.

“It’s disgusting. I couldn’t stay at home today. The Government needs to start looking after its own. They need to wake up and see what it’s like in the real world.” A few carriages away in first-class were the leaders of Derby City Council, formed of a Tory-Lib Dem coalition.

Tory leader Philip Hickson said: “The Government has got it wrong. It’s not nice to be in open conflict with your party, but I see it as a matter of great ­injustice and we’ll do whatever is necessary, even if that means supporting the unions to force a ­judicial review.”

He said he realised the effect the job cuts were having on families while gathering ­signatures for a petition in Derby city centre.

He said: “A couple and their children came out of a travel agent. The mother was in tears and her children were upset. She told us they had to cancel their holiday. I don’t remember a single issue that has so energised the public as this one. We’re determined to make the Government reverse this decision.”

Derby’s Labour leader Paul Bayliss agrees. Like so many in the city he will be personally affected by the plant’s closure – his sister and two brothers-in-law work at Bombardier.

He said: “When Britain’s train industry has gone, we’ll have lost it for ever, and the irony is that we invented the entire industry. It seems sheer stupidity to give away our country’s ability to manufacture trains, and make us reliant on imports, and that’s not counting the impact of employment and the human cost.

“Every time I open my surgery I hear from someone who stands to lose everything because of this rash decision.

“That’s why we’re all here today, to persuade the Government to think again and spare these hard-working families all that suffering and hardship.” Unite union’s John Pearson, chairman of the works committee at Bombardier, hears distressing stories every day from his workforce.

He said: “Things aren’t good at the moment. Everyone’s worried. But people have been given strength by the support we’ve been getting from the public.

“Everyone seems to be behind us, and that’s what keeps us fighting.”

The extent of public support was demonstrated when the Spirit of Derby arrived at St Pancras, exactly one hour and 53 minutes after setting off.

As the passengers piled off the train and unfurled a banner on the platform, many of London’s commuters stopped and burst into spontaneous applause.

Then the Bombardier group set off across the capital for the second leg of their journey, this time to protest at the House of Commons.

These protesters refuse to give up while there’s still a chance to fight.