Premier's pledge to help fight for jobs
The Prime Minister interrupted her tour of a Deeside factory on Friday for an unscheduled chat with protesting textile workers who are fighting shock plans by Courtaulds to axe 1,100 jobs.
Mrs. Thatcher pledged to do everything possible to bring new jobs into the blackspot and agreed to meet a small deputation of textile workers from Wrexham where 510 jobs will be lost.
The Courtaulds company is also to close the Greenfield works with the loss of 600 jobs.
Mrs. Thatcher said that while the Government could not intervene directly in the company's closure plans—which she described as a tremendous blow—she did promise to write to Courtaulds' chairman, Sir Christopher Hogg, on their behalf.
The unexpected talks were held in an office at the £17.5 million Optical Fibres company on the Deeside Industrial Park. About a dozen protestors stood outside the main gate and asked to see Mrs. Thatcher. She agreed and three were hurried in through the tight security cordon.
Jobs Promise
At a Press conference at the factory Mrs. Thatcher said Government agencies would do everything within their power to bring new jobs into the area.
There was also a hint of criticism of the Courtaulds' management for failing to diversify into new products because of the slump in yarn products.
Although she did not name the company, she said that management of one-product factories did have a duty to their workforce to seek out and develop new products.
“Products do change. We do need new ones. It ought to be part of the work of successful management,” she said.
Mrs. Thatcher earlier met local authority leaders at Hawarden Airport.
She said the talks had been one of the most constructive she had had and she hoped the outcome of those discussions would bring new jobs into the area.
She pledged that following the Courtaulds' announcement, the Government was reviewing its priority in the area, and would look at its derelict land programme, advance factory programme and its grants to help provide small units, for which there was a great demand.
Closures Blow
The Courtaulds company also have an important role to play in attracting new jobs into the area.
The closures had come as a big blow to many individuals and families but she said, the Government together with local agencies, would be working urgently to see how the textile sites at Greenfield and Wrexham could be best used to create jobs for the future.
The Prime Minister had nothing but praise for the workforce as “hardworking and loyal”.
Fine Example
She said the Optical Fibres company, Europe's leading manufacturer of high quality optical fibre for the telecommunications industry, employing 200 people, some of them ex-steelworkers, was an example of what could be done.
The company recently won a massive £9 million order and a £5 million expansion programme was nearing completion.
Mrs. Thatcher then went on to Mostyn where she unveiled a plaque to commemorate the start of construction of new laboratories at the Warwick International chemical plant.
Mr. Thatcher, a science graduate and former research chemist, also saw how the company manufactures a top-selling detergent additive, which has revolutionised washdays for millions of housewives throughout Europe. [end p1]
(2) HTV Archive: OUP transcript:
Reporter
The Prime Minister's day was originally planned as a party morale booster plus a visit to Clwyd factories in the forefront of the high-tech industrial revival so beloved of her Government. But the Courtaulds situation followed her wherever she went from the moment, indeed, that her plane touched down at Hawarden airport just after eight o'clock this morning. A delegation from the three local authorities affected by the textile plants' closures were waiting to meet her, having had themselves and their cars carefully checked by the tight security cordon. The talks lasted the best part of an hour and were described by both sides as worthwhile in one regard at least. [end p2]
Man
She obviously shared the concerned that we were able to express about the anguish of this community in reeling from this blow again. We asked her to use what influence she could to get Courtaulds to change this crazy decision. Um, I think we all made it absolutely clear that we thought it was, um, quite a vicious sort of decision affecting this community, taking two plants out of one county, which has already got such high unemployment. She was not sympathetic in any specific, but generally, she was understanding. I think that's probably the way I would want to put it.
Reporter
So, a worthwhile meeting, you think?
Man
I think very important that the Prime Minister really should be aware of the particular problem here.
Reporter
But you don't really see any future for Courtaulds?
Man
We will try. I mean, our logic says that if there's any community responsibility anywhere amongst industry, then it would call for a change of decision at least in part. But the reality is that, that probably they'll go ahead anyway and close it.
Reporter
For her part, Mrs Thatcher was keen to accentuate the positive. Her tour of the new optical fibres plant on the Deeside Industrial Park, built to replace the jobs lost in the last big redundancy in North Wales at Shotton five years ago, lasted longer than planned. But then it was back to the Courtaulds question. And a quick chat with shop stewards from the Courtaulds acetate plant at Wrexham, where 510 are going. But what is the Government prepared to do?
MT
Em, we're very anxious to do everything we can to help these people. We realise what a tremendous blow it is, both to individuals, to their families, and beyond that, to the small businesses who serve these factories, because one large factory always has a lot of smaller businesses serving it. I can't give you any assurance that Courtaulds would stay open. They have announced they're going to close, and that is a decision for them. When I saw Sir Christopher Hogg, he indicated to me that they would do everything possible to help, you know, the small businesses, to help with the site and so on.
Reporter
The Prime Minister made it clear, too, that Courtaulds had failed in their duty to their North Wales workers. [end p3]
MT
Management, you know, does have a duty to the workforce to try to develop different products. Because products do change, they do develop, you do need new ones, and I think the development of fresh products really ought to be a part of the work of successful management. That is one thing. And if we can get more of that in the future, then it will give hope to people who are in big one-product factories.
Reporter
A point which the workers themselves heartily endorsed. [end p4]
(3) Abergele Visitor, 3 May 1985:
Shift workers opt out of meeting Maggie
Glass manufacturers Pilkington PE marked Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's visit on Friday with the announcement of a £5 million contract—although many of their employees were not there to hear it.
A spokesman for the St. Asaph company said that workers had been given a choice of working either a shift during Mrs. Thatcher's visit, or one which ended just before she arrived.
Most of the shift workers opted out of the chance to see her even though it meant starting work before their breakfasts, and the Prime Minister toured a shop floor manned by just over half the usual workforce.
Accompanied by Mr. Anthony Pilkinton, chairman of Pilkington Brothers, Mr. John Arbuthnott, managing director of PE, and a number of other company officials, Mrs. Thatcher's tour went on for 10 minutes longer than anticipated.
Management had hoped that she would announce the confirmation of the mult-million pound contract for head-up display optic modules for America from GEC Avionics, but after over-running her timetable she was quickly ushered into a waiting car on to her next appointment at the Kinmel Manor, Abergele, where she was greeted by about 30 protesting CND campaigners.
Cheers
But the St Asaph visit went off without hitches. Only four CND members with posters reading “Bread Not Bombs” were at the roadside as she left the factory to cheers and waves from office workers who left their desks to see her off.
During her tour of the factory, which does a lot of work for the Ministry of Defence, Mrs. Thatcher inspected a display of optical components and saw at first hand the night-sights and holographic glass which Pilkington 's make for military use.
She got photographers into focus through night sights as she posed with some of the equipment produced by Pilkington PE, before going off to meet directors of the Electro Optical Division in private at the end of the tour.
Pilkington PE's latest contract for the USA is for the wide-angle head up display which can be operated by night as well as day. They have already manufactured well over 4,000 of those since 1968, for the A7, F16, Viggen and other aircraft. [end p5]
PM heckled by peace campaigners
A handful of peace campaigners were the only opposition the Prime Minister met last Friday, when she visited the Kinmel Manor Hotel in Abergele to meet party workers.
As part of her whistle-stop tour to the area, she stopped off in Abergele for a reception and to talk to members of the Clwyd North West Conservative Association.
Fresh from her hour-long visit to Pilkington's in St. Asaph, Mrs. Thatcher drove up the long drive, only to be booed and heckled by campaigners from the Colwyn Peace Group.
However, as soon as she had disappeared, the protesters went away and Mrs. Thatcher's visit went on uninterrupted.
At the Kinmel Manor, she was greeted by Mr. Keith Orchison of Towyn, chairman of the local Conservative organisation, and was taken into the hotel to meet other members and mingle with the crowds and sign autographs.
During her visit she was presented with a framed limited edition print of a map specially commissioned to commemorate the Royal National Eisteddfod in Rhyl later this year.
She was also presented with a bouquet of flowers from Jane Morpeth, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Colin Morpeth, manager of the hotel.
After the presentations, Mrs. Thatcher gave a speech and referred to the Courtauld's management announcement of the closure of their Greenfield factory and said she had already met with representatives of the local authorities on the matter.
She also said that jobs had been going up steadily and in the 18 months prior to September 1984 nearly half a million jobs had been created, with small businesses playing a key part.
She also spoke on how more women were looking for work and pointed out that 200,000 new part-time jobs had been created and added they had been successful in stemming the tide of unemployment.
She also explained about the new community programmes for the long-term unemployed and youth training schemes for 16 to 18-year-olds.
She received a rousing cheer from the 500-strong audience and after one-and-a-half hours in Abergele she left to catch a train back to London.