NE W S R E L E A S E FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUESDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2003
"FIGHT TO SAVE BOOTS AIRDRIE FACTORY" SAYS STUC
Reacting to the news that Boots plans to run down and close its Airdrie operation over the next two years, with the loss of 1,000 jobs, STUC General Secretary, Bill Speirs, said today:
"If this goes ahead it will be yet another turn of the screw on Scottish manufacturing, and on the economy and people of north Lanarkshire.
"The unions representing the Boots workers, USDAW and Amicus AEEU, will be looking to find ways of averting the closure. They will have the full support of the STUC, and must also have the support of Scottish Enterprise, all of the political parties and the wider community, including the business community.
"The priority must be to keep this plant open. The first step in achieving that must be to find out why it has been singled out by the company, after half a century of producing profits for the shareholders.
"Why is it yet again so much easier and cheaper to close a factory in Britain than elsewhere?"
ENDS
Bill Speirs or
Frank Whitelaw (USDAW) http://www.usdaw.org.uk/