From: silvermoonTo: pardrosSubject: Simclar on wikipediaDate: Sat, 10/02/2007 - 20:32
I've started a page on wikipedia on Simclar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simclar_Group
Its quite easy to edit to add more info (click the edit button at the top to add more details).
Best wishes ******
Sunday 11 February 2007
Sam Russell Fabricates the Truth
So another Simclar factory closes its doors with the loss of 420 jobs. Simclar International CEO Sam Russell, issues a press release claiming “Simclar (Ayrshire) has experienced challenging business conditions in the last two years as a result of severe drops in demand for its products following the loss of a number of key customer contracts”
His actions even draw sympathy from Alf Young writing in the Business section of The Herald http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/comment/display.var.1177201.0.0.php
So that’s that then, the good people open their morning papers and shake their heads at another unavoidable nail in the coffin for the Scotland manufacturing industry. Sam Russell MBE, business entrepreneur of the year 2001 walks away, his public persona in tact, the smoke and mirrors elusion complete.
This is the facade that Russell would have us all believe. What the 8th richest man in Scotland fails to mention is in the last two years Simclar (Ayrshire) Ltd turned a profit of £4.7m. The “severe drops in demand for its products following the loss of a number of key customer contracts” quote couldn’t be further from the truth. Simclar (Ayrshire) had a full order book for the next 9 months with her existing customers such a NCR & Motorola quoting for new business. We had just won a major order to supply 150 sheet metal parts to Alcatel-Lucent, a major supplier to the telecommunications industry for the global market. Alcatel-Lucent achieved combined sales of Euro 18.6 billion in 2005.
Does this really sound to you like a company facing “experienced challenging business conditions”? No, Sam Russell’s ploy was simple. Transfers all Simclar (Ayrshire) assets over to Simclar International i.e. property, machinery, material & stock then transfers all the existing and future contracts, then call in the administrators. Jobs a good un. Sam walks away with all the Scottish Executive grants tightly tucked away in the back pocket of his neatly tailored suit leaving you the British taxpayer to foot the bill for minimum statutory redundancy payment.
Let’s make no mistake here; Sammy boy’s no local hero. This is a man who doesn’t even trust his own wife Christina enough to hold more than a 5% stake in a company she helped create. Sam Russell has exploited every corporate legal loop hole known to man with scant disregard for human emotions to pursue his own personal pursuit of greed.
Having worked for Simclar (Ayrshire) for the last 17 years I’ve experiencing first hand the social train wreck this guy has left behind in North Ayrshire. Our longest serving workmate had 28 years service under his belt. As Russell’s long-term goal of becoming a $500m turnover company by 2007 looks imminent, ex workmates and I are facing the prospect of going cap in hand to the DSS for Crisis Loans. I know that our factory sit-ins & picket line protests will probably amount to f**k all but who knows perhaps the DTI will bring this asset stripping pariah to task before he gets the chance to pull the same ‘cut n run’ hatchet job with the 300 workers currently still employed at Dunfermline.
I would like to finish this blog by thanking all the working class comrades who turned up at all hours of the day and night in sub-zero temperatures to pledge their Solidarity & stand in front of over zealous police officers to block wagons leaving Riverside. You know who you are. How come we managed to get through so many padlocks, chains & Superglue?
I will leave you with Sam Russell’s legacy so far,
Sam closes FCI Gourock with the loss of 500 jobs in 2003
Sam closes Simclar (Dundee) Ltd with the loss of 50 jobs in 2005
Sam closes UPMex a Preston based company with the loss of 150 jobs in 2005 (now, Simclar Seating Technologies)
Sam closes Simclar (Ayrshire) with the loss of 420 jobs in 2007
Simclar Dunfermline, to be continued…….
Take care,
Jack
His actions even draw sympathy from Alf Young writing in the Business section of The Herald http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/comment/display.var.1177201.0.0.php
So that’s that then, the good people open their morning papers and shake their heads at another unavoidable nail in the coffin for the Scotland manufacturing industry. Sam Russell MBE, business entrepreneur of the year 2001 walks away, his public persona in tact, the smoke and mirrors elusion complete.
This is the facade that Russell would have us all believe. What the 8th richest man in Scotland fails to mention is in the last two years Simclar (Ayrshire) Ltd turned a profit of £4.7m. The “severe drops in demand for its products following the loss of a number of key customer contracts” quote couldn’t be further from the truth. Simclar (Ayrshire) had a full order book for the next 9 months with her existing customers such a NCR & Motorola quoting for new business. We had just won a major order to supply 150 sheet metal parts to Alcatel-Lucent, a major supplier to the telecommunications industry for the global market. Alcatel-Lucent achieved combined sales of Euro 18.6 billion in 2005.
Does this really sound to you like a company facing “experienced challenging business conditions”? No, Sam Russell’s ploy was simple. Transfers all Simclar (Ayrshire) assets over to Simclar International i.e. property, machinery, material & stock then transfers all the existing and future contracts, then call in the administrators. Jobs a good un. Sam walks away with all the Scottish Executive grants tightly tucked away in the back pocket of his neatly tailored suit leaving you the British taxpayer to foot the bill for minimum statutory redundancy payment.
Let’s make no mistake here; Sammy boy’s no local hero. This is a man who doesn’t even trust his own wife Christina enough to hold more than a 5% stake in a company she helped create. Sam Russell has exploited every corporate legal loop hole known to man with scant disregard for human emotions to pursue his own personal pursuit of greed.
Having worked for Simclar (Ayrshire) for the last 17 years I’ve experiencing first hand the social train wreck this guy has left behind in North Ayrshire. Our longest serving workmate had 28 years service under his belt. As Russell’s long-term goal of becoming a $500m turnover company by 2007 looks imminent, ex workmates and I are facing the prospect of going cap in hand to the DSS for Crisis Loans. I know that our factory sit-ins & picket line protests will probably amount to f**k all but who knows perhaps the DTI will bring this asset stripping pariah to task before he gets the chance to pull the same ‘cut n run’ hatchet job with the 300 workers currently still employed at Dunfermline.
I would like to finish this blog by thanking all the working class comrades who turned up at all hours of the day and night in sub-zero temperatures to pledge their Solidarity & stand in front of over zealous police officers to block wagons leaving Riverside. You know who you are. How come we managed to get through so many padlocks, chains & Superglue?
I will leave you with Sam Russell’s legacy so far,
Sam closes FCI Gourock with the loss of 500 jobs in 2003
Sam closes Simclar (Dundee) Ltd with the loss of 50 jobs in 2005
Sam closes UPMex a Preston based company with the loss of 150 jobs in 2005 (now, Simclar Seating Technologies)
Sam closes Simclar (Ayrshire) with the loss of 420 jobs in 2007
Simclar Dunfermline, to be continued…….
Take care,
Jack
This is the man Sam Russell MBE
He claims to be proud to be Scottish,proud of bringing so many jobs to the country and pround of his MBE.
Proud to be Scottish,yet he can treat the Scottish workers like this!
Jobs created,the man that says minimum wage is to high!
The MBE for services to industry,he should hand that back,no taken from him the way he has treated so many workers.Leaving the goverment to pay for his debts while he swans of with the jobs and profits....Solidarity will win in the end if theres any justice in the world.Speak up Sam,why did you run and not pay out? This will not go away,the brothers and sisters will chase you everywhere until justice is done...
Saturday 10 February 2007
another interesting post
pardros wrote:
naw fvck the union mate,they're a cop-out,no no-one else we stand alone in this,until now of course!the local community are still pulling together,think i'll need to go down the anarchy road(like the auld punk i am)
what do you think of this pardros?
whats wrong with suggesting that the workers take matters into their own hands,and do some asset stripping of their own,unless of course the wobblies involved are the same as the ssp workers,so they will be after votes rather than action.
i know a few soft-southern-shite anarchists willing to parachute in and lend a hand.
naw fvck the union mate,they're a cop-out,no no-one else we stand alone in this,until now of course!the local community are still pulling together,think i'll need to go down the anarchy road(like the auld punk i am)
what do you think of this pardros?
whats wrong with suggesting that the workers take matters into their own hands,and do some asset stripping of their own,unless of course the wobblies involved are the same as the ssp workers,so they will be after votes rather than action.
i know a few soft-southern-shite anarchists willing to parachute in and lend a hand.
solidarity from NY WSA
just posted on a forum i've joined,
Here's the email sent by NY WSA to domestic & international contacts & lists:
Comrades
Here's a fast breaking struggle happeing in Scotland at the Ayrshire plant of the SIMCLAR GROUP This email is our first alert and rapid call for workers' solidarity.
Protest letters can be sent to the company's executive Sam Russell MBE at
eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%73%61%6d%2e%72%75%73%73%65%6c%6c%40%73%69%6d%63%6c%61%72%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%73%61%6d%2e%72%75%73%73%65%6c%6c%40%73%69%6d%63%6c%61%72%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))
sam.russell@simclar.com
The workers blog:
http://simclarthetruth.blogspot.com/
From: BBC: Sacked staff storm Ayrshire plantWorkers sacked by a Scottish manufacturing firm have stormed a factory to stage a protest.Simclar announced on Monday it was closing two of its Ayrshire plants, in Irvine and Kilwinning, with the loss of 420 jobs.
During a protest outside the Kilwinning site, the factory doors were opened and up to 60 workers ran inside.
The full can be found
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6309273.stm
Discussion of the struggle, with a worker participant, can be found: http://libcom.org/forums/organise/solidarity-with-simclar-workers?page=0#comment-165989
Company information can be found: http://www.simclar.com/orientation.htm
******************************Workers Solidarity Alliance339 Lafayette Street-Room 202New York, NY 10012tel. (212) 979-8353
Here's the email sent by NY WSA to domestic & international contacts & lists:
Comrades
Here's a fast breaking struggle happeing in Scotland at the Ayrshire plant of the SIMCLAR GROUP This email is our first alert and rapid call for workers' solidarity.
Protest letters can be sent to the company's executive Sam Russell MBE at
eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%73%61%6d%2e%72%75%73%73%65%6c%6c%40%73%69%6d%63%6c%61%72%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%73%61%6d%2e%72%75%73%73%65%6c%6c%40%73%69%6d%63%6c%61%72%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b'))
sam.russell@simclar.com
The workers blog:
http://simclarthetruth.blogspot.com/
From: BBC: Sacked staff storm Ayrshire plantWorkers sacked by a Scottish manufacturing firm have stormed a factory to stage a protest.Simclar announced on Monday it was closing two of its Ayrshire plants, in Irvine and Kilwinning, with the loss of 420 jobs.
During a protest outside the Kilwinning site, the factory doors were opened and up to 60 workers ran inside.
The full can be found
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6309273.stm
Discussion of the struggle, with a worker participant, can be found: http://libcom.org/forums/organise/solidarity-with-simclar-workers?page=0#comment-165989
Company information can be found: http://www.simclar.com/orientation.htm
******************************Workers Solidarity Alliance339 Lafayette Street-Room 202New York, NY 10012tel. (212) 979-8353
help is on the way!
i've spent most of the day in contact with activists from around the world and they are aware of our plight and strongly pledge their support.they will start with bombarding sam the bam's business email addy and sending the company letters of disapproval of their conduct.they have asked me what help is it that we require,so if anybody has any ideas please post them and i will relay them to these dedicated people.POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Block B Sit-In Comes To An End
Troops leave Block B in kilwinning after nearly 27hrs. The purpose for many for the sit-in was to bring media attention to the way Sam Russell conducts his business. We as a workforce can't believe that a company with so much money,orders and assets can get away with sacking everybody and calling in administators. This is so that they can get away without paying bills/redundancy money. Workers are left with no money and also other firms who provided services to Simclar Ayrshire are now having to wait and see if there will be any money left for them. Assets being sold to the highest bidder(Simclar Dunfermline?) by the little known administrators Kroll. All assets to go except Block B as this was already passed to the Simclar group before the financial troubles(aye right).
treated worse than criminals!
it's a sad day when people who wrong society are told they may be entitled to some kind of financial package because their basic human rights may be infringed(bollocks),and decent law abiding citizens(who are the moral and ethical backbone of this society) are being shunted around by police and security guards,having to apply for for crisis loans(how demeaning) while the bigwigs just waltz away with our money under the noses and probably with the consent of the judiciary system,what a fvckin crazy topsy turvy world we live in!
Friday 9 February 2007
block b troops at sit-in
this photo was taken about 4 or 5 hours into our occupation,there were another 20 people outside talking to the media
sam the bam
this man must brought to task for all his dodgy dealings and workforce exploitation,we are fighting the 8th richest man in scotland who has a brigade of top lawyers at his disposal,it's not been easy for us but we're committed and are learning fast.
The Start Of The End
On the 29/01/2007 Simclar Ayrshire locked the gates on its 420 strong workforce.
A statement from the company put the closure down to competition from the far east and falling orders.Significant efforts were made to make Ayrshire viable,they said.
So why are there so many unanswered questions?
Why did the company change owners weeks before?
Why were our jobs advertised weeks ago at another plant?
Where is the money we are due?
A statement from the company put the closure down to competition from the far east and falling orders.Significant efforts were made to make Ayrshire viable,they said.
So why are there so many unanswered questions?
Why did the company change owners weeks before?
Why were our jobs advertised weeks ago at another plant?
Where is the money we are due?
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