Thatcher in attack over the loss of Ford factory

The Prime Minister yesterday attacked both the Labour Party and the trade union movement for ensuring that 1,000 jobs, planned for Dundee by the Ford Motor Company, were stillborn.

Mrs Margaret Thatcher, on a visit to Scotland, blamed out-dated trade unionism for the loss of the jobs as she announced that a health care company, Shield Diagnostics, was to create 300 jobs in Dundee.

Speaking to Conservative Party workers she said: “We worked extremely hard to get Ford to Dundee. We worked hard because there were many other countries who wanted the investment Ford would bring. Germany wanted it, Spain wanted it.

“We, the Government, did everything possible. We were successful in saying Dundee was the place. We could not have foreseen that a party that often questions me about more jobs, in the House of Commons, would be the very party that ensured these jobs were stillborn.”

She paid tribute to Mr Gavin Laird, the general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, who she said also worked hard to persuade Ford to build its £40 million electronics plant in Dundee.

But, she added: “What I do not understand is that, in this modern age, some of the trade unions are more concerned with demarcation disputes, restrictive practices and sectional interests than in jobs for their fellow citizens” .

Ford pulled out of the project after unions failed to agree to a single-union deal, arranged by Mr. Laird. Ironically, Shield Diagnostics will have no union presence in its factory.

Mr. Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Scotland, said: “If the trade union movement are able to speak with a single voice then there is still a possibility of Ford reconsidering its decision” .

Earlier in the day, while visiting Greenock, Mrs Thatcher announced that the Government had designated Inverclyde an Enterprise Zone, the fourth in Scotland, in which 3,200 jobs are expected to be created.

Shield Diagnostics will set up its £4 million health care venture on Dundee's Technology Park, close to where the Ford factory was to have been.

The company, formed by scientists from Dundee University Medical school, will research, develop and manufacture kits for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses, and for predicting the risk of heart attacks.