NO CUTS TO FORD PENSIONS!

About 100 Ford pensioners protested outside Ford's UK & European HQ in Brentwood in Essex today to lobby Ford management. They were meeting the plant convenors and senior staff reps along with national union officers about basing future rises in Ford pensions on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI) to come into line with the ConDem pension changes.

Rob Williams, Ex-Visteon Swansea plant convenor

Unite has estimated that this could reduce a Ford pension by 15% over time costing pensioners tens of thousands of pounds. It will have an immediate effect because the index-linked rise in April will now be 3.1% instead of the original RPI-based 4.6%. Of course, 'real' inflation is far higher than both figures and is set to rise still further so this is will have a devastating effect on these pensioners who contributed to making � billions of profit for Ford for decades.

Any change to pensions for top management will have a minor effect - CEO Alan Mulally was paid $56 million last year! Of course, Ford have previous on pensions. Ex-Ford Visteon pensioners joined the lobby and told their ex-comrades about how they had suffered losses of up to 50% because Ford had reneged on the guarantees made to them when the company created Visteon in 2000. Over 3,000 of these ex-Ford workers face cuts to their pensions because Visteon went into administration in 2009. Unite has now started legal action against Ford to get them to pay up.

The union team told the pensioners that management have been told that there will be no agreement which ignores the rights of pensioners. They will now meet in April with the pensioners promising another lobby. However, the industrial strength of the Ford plants need to be brought to bear on the management. They've made $9 billion profit last year and will only take notice of action that threatens their ability to earn. Ford see the ConDem's decision as an opportunity to reduce their pension burden by hiding behind the law. But all Ford workers and pensioners must realise that they want out of the Ford pension fund altogether in its present final salary form. If they can be defeated now, it will make them think twice about any other bigger changes in the future - particularly as this is pay claim year.