Unions will today meet with Bosch management at Clayton, after the company announced it would make 380 auto-components workers redundant, last Friday.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) is very angry the company made the decision without first seeking alternatives to job losses with either unions or the federal government.

Bosch workers had endured a 20 month pay freeze in order to ‘support’ the company during the global financial crisis. In 2010, Bosch increased its global sales by 24% to reach an all-time high for the company.

Adding insult to the loyal workers, the company has not even lost contracts but is simply transferring the work done at Clayton to operations overseas.

AMWU Victorian Secretary, Steve Dargavel, said, “It’s very frustrating and gut-wrenching for the workers to be treated this way after showing real loyalty to the company.

“Clearly companies do not reward workers who endure pay freezes and show loyalty. Wages were not a factor in this decision and in fact, Bosch is investing in other sites around the world where earnings are higher.

“We will argue for the company to reverse its decision. We also want the federal government to use their influence to reverse this disgraceful kick in the guts.”

The AMWU has also rejected the company’s reasons for transferring their operations overseas. Bosch claims that the reason for the transfer is because the products they produce in the Clayton plant are “predominantly for export in a highly competitive environment.”

However, the union claims that at least one of the three manufacturing lines being transferred overseas will produce products that will be imported back into Australia.

Steve Dargavel said he was disappointed with the company’s reasons for transferring the jobs overseas saying they’ve been overcoming distance to market for decades and he noted that a lot of companies exporting into Australia don’t claim distance to market issue.

The company also claim that the plant is no longer sufficiently competitive in these particular exports markets, yet the AMWU insists the company did not make contact at any stage to investigate whether productivity or competitiveness could be improved.

“Had we known there were issues of concern and the possibility of job losses coming, it may have been possible for the workers and the company to reach an agreement on improvements to those issues. However, when a company decides to inform the workers and their representatives of job losses through the media, then you have to question whether they really did want to engage in a meaningful way and try to save Australian jobs,” said Mr Dargavel.

A Bosch spokesperson said, “Competitive pressures are such that approaching the government for help on this wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Mr Dargavel rejected this saying, “This clearly illustrates that the company has made no explorations with either the workers or the government to save these 380 jobs. They’ve made this decision based on where they can make the most profits and that is clearly at the expense of loyal Australian workers, their families and their communities.”