Honda will reportedly announce the closure of its Swindon car manufacturing facility in 2022, a move that will see approximately 3,500 employees lose their jobs, the BBC reports. The Japanese automaker produced 160,000 units of the Honda Civic in Swindon last year, and over 90% of which were exported to Europe.
While an official announcement has yet to be made, a UK member of parliament, Justin Tomlinson said he had spoken to Honda, which confirmed it was consulting with ‘all staff’.”There is not expected to be any job losses, or changes in production until 2021,” Tomlinson said.
The Unite union said the reports, if confirmed, would be a “shattering body blow,” with officer Des Quinn saying “the car industry in the UK over the last two decades has been the jewel in the crown for the manufacturing sector – and now it has been brought low by the chaotic Brexit uncertainty created by the rigid approach adopted by prime minister Theresa May.”
Des Quinn added that despite having a “grave” impact on workers and their families, the plant closure “will also affect thousands of jobs in the extensive supply chain across the country.” A spokesman for UK prime minister Theresa May said it was “only right that we wait until the company has spoken with the workforce” before commenting.
Martin Huggins, a Honda worker for 25 years said “we haven’t heard anything at all – all we have seen is what is on our phones. The management have told us nothing at all. This will be a sad day for Swindon as a whole, not just the workers but all the subsidiary companies that go with it.”
The Guardian report states that Honda workers in Swindon are furious, and at the same time fearful of their future. They blamed Brexit for the likely closure of the plant, with one worker leaving the plant saying the atmosphere inside (the plant) was “clearly not very happy.”
The person, who like most workers absorbing the news did not wish to be named, has been with the company for 24 years. He, who also blamed Brexit for Honda’s decision to close the plant, had voted for the UK to remain in the EU. Another man asked how he felt as he left the site replied: “Devastated. That’s all I can say.”
Honda’s Swindon plant is situated on a former airfield and produces both VTEC turbo petrol engines and diesel i-DTEC engines. Honda bought the site in 1985 and established Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) to inspect vehicles pre-delivery. In 1989, the operations expanded to producing engines, and three years later a car plant was added, which began producing the Honda Accord.
Since then, the site began producing the Jazz, CR-V, Civic and Civic Type R. A second Honda plant opened in Swindon in 2001, raising production capacity to 250,000 a year. However, production has dwindled and is currently running at about half its capacity, further contributing to uncertainties surrounding its future.
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