Floundering Mitsubishi throws 1000 Adelaide workers overboard

Bob Briton

A very poorly kept "secret" became official last Friday when 
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) chief executive Yoichiro 
Okazaki announced that Adelaide's Lonsdale engine assembly plant 
would be closed in 18 months time. Details of the decision had 
already appeared in The Advertiser that morning, dressed 
up as informed speculation.

South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley was going along with it. 
Asked whether he felt whether one of the two Mitsubishi plants in 
Adelaide might close, he said: "I am not going to begin to go 
there. It is too important to be speculating and I don't want to 
jeopardise the final decision."

As if they were listening! In the same announcement, Mr Okazaki 
said that MMC's global workforce would be reduced from 26,400 to 
18,800. The job cuts were made in response to the corporation's 
massive $14 billion debt. MMC has suffered declining sales in 
recent years and been the subject of a series of scandals to do 
with vehicle defects, recalls and cover-ups.

As a result of these management failures, 650 local workers will 
be out of work in the near future. Initial optimism that some of 
the workers could take up positions in the Tonsley Park vehicle 
assembly plant has been dampened by a further announcement by 
Mitsubishi Motors Australia (MMA) President Tom Phillips over the 
weekend that another 350 jobs would be going from MMA's remaining 
Adelaide plant.

Tough talk from the State and Federal Governments about demanding 
their previous financial incentives back from MMC has died away. 
Federal Finance Minister Nick Minchin has set the new tone. "This 
should be seen as a good news day", he said. $40 million of 
Federal money is now on offer for any operator wanting to take 
over the Lonsdale site.

Good news? The government is prepared to throw another $40 
million at another private corporation to do the same thing 
further down the track. It might be good news if the government 
directed taxpayer money (taxes on workers' wages) into taking 
over the plants and demanding returns for previous handouts.

In other news, Mr Phillips has denied as "rubbish" reports coming 
from Japan that the Tonsley Park plant may itself be closed in 
2012.