ONCE again the future of railway engineering in Derby – and the whole of Britain – is under threat, as Alstom, the current transnational corporation (TNC) owners of this vital national asset, set about slashing 1,300 workers from its 2,000-strong workforce, making future operations unviable.

But a public community campaign has been launched by the Derby People’s Assembly to back up trade union efforts to prevent the job losses and potential closure. A People’s Assembly petition – supported by the trades unions’ social media – has attracted 1,500 signatures in just a few days and continues to pick up momentum. https://chng.it/xBK9wjp8zK 

Back in 2011 the industry faced a very similar threat when the then owners, Bombardier – another TNC – took a similar position when the Tory government placed a contract for trains with its TNC rival, Siemens.

A huge campaign was launched, culminating in a 10,000-strong march and rally in the City, with a promise of more direct action. The government ran for cover.

The ostensible reason for the threat this time is that the government’s U-turns and general incompetence over the HS2 rail project has delayed the train production date to 2026, leaving Alstom with a very sparse order book. 

This has led to a proposal from Alstom itself, local politicians, trade unions and some others — including Transport for London — that the government could simply provide finance to bring forward existing orders (and create some more) to fill the gap in Alstom’s orders.

But the reality of Alstom’s problems lies in much murkier waters.

Back in late 2017 Alstom  and Siemens proposed a merger of their train building operations to create a massive European based monopoly designed to challenge the world’s largest rail engineering enterprise, the Chinese state-owned CRRC established in 2015 which quickly secured orders from many nations of the world, attracted by China’s progressive trading partnerships.

Not so popular with Trump’s US though, which imposed sanctions on it and forbade any US company or individual to deal with it.

The merger of Alstom and Siemens fell through however, partly because of internal schisms, and partly because even the EU could see the dangers of such blatant monopolisation on a European and worldwide scale.

So in 2021 Alstom bought Bombardier for just under £5 billion – another attempt at extending monopoly, but one which led to huge problems, of which the current threat to Derby jobs and industry is just one part. 

The most recent of these problems has, according to the Financial Times (November 12 2023), “contributed to a cash crunch at the world’s second-largest train manufacturer.”

Maybe Bombardier was overpriced as a company? Certainly many of its contracts have been identified by Alstom as “problematic” in terms of “inventory and production” in the diplomatic language of the monopoly cut-throats.

In other words in trying to stitch up the world markets, Alstom has stitched itself up. Billions of euros have been wiped off Alstom’s market value.

Moody’s (monopoly capital’s favourite indicator of which companies are the world’s top dogs in their dog-eat-dog world) now rates Alstom as “Baa3”  which, again in the expressive terms of the Financial Times is “just a notch above junk status.”

Its share prices are at an 18-year low, and are falling.

Alstom had debt of €2.13bn at the end of March 2023. Everyone could see what was coming: “disposals” – or as we know it, asset stripping.

Its all part of the chaotic and crisis ridden world of monopoly capital, in which companies eat each other and spit out the gristly bits: in the process billions are made by those who come out on top, and those who fail are often bailed out to exploit another day. The losers are always the working class.

What is the answer to the problems in the industry, and the potential crisis for Derby workers?

It’s clear – production for a planned industrial strategy to meet the needs of the people – not the scramble for monopoly to meet the demands of capitalism.

The demand must be Protect our Jobs and Industry – take Alstom into public ownership for the people.