UK Cars

BMW let a bunch of people go who worked at the Mini plant in England. They were temporary workers hired through an agency. BMW didn't even want to acknowledge that any jobs were lost. These people didn't count as a layoff.

The Mini is a successful car. It is not like the Mini is going away. The drop of the number of the Mini drops jobs all over the place and all the way back up the line of the component suppliers.

It mimics exactly what is happening in the U. S.. The unions have been fighting like mad to prevent temporary workers and change the laws so temps have to be treated similarly to permanent workers when it comes to unemployment and such. This is to make it matter the same whether a company heirs temps or permanent workers.

If those UK temps had been hired in a different part of Europe, they would have had rights like being warned before that morning and they would have received some kind of payment.

The drop in sales was something like 30% at Mini. The job loss goes down as a 0% in the books.

This touches my world because I was a contractor at my old company. I worked there for over nine years. I had no seniority. I doubt the powers that be counted it as a loss anywhere on the books. I like to think that I was missed and difficult to replace. Wouldn't any one?