Freescale Semiconductor’s private equity owners, a consortium lead by Blackstone, are causing great distress to the 900 workers at the East Kilbride fab by refusing to answer any questions about their future.
Within a year of Blackstone and its partners buying Freescale in a bid valuing the company at $17.6 billion, which everyone in the industry thought was way over-priced, Freescale announced that they were looking for a buyer for the East Kilbride fab.
However, before the fab was sold, Freescale said it wanted the plant to be worked hard to lay up a stock of product.
Now the Glasgow Herald is reporting on the frustration of a workforce left in the dark.
"If they close us down in six months, I need to start getting retrained now if they wait and then spring it on us, then they're messing with people's lives”, the Herald quotes an employee, “I've been a loyal employee here for 19 years. Some have been here longer. We all just want the truth. We need them to be honest with us. We don't even know if they're going to honour their obligations and pay us decent redundancy package or whether they'll just skip and try to get out of it."
Another employee is quoted by the Herald: "They're offering bonuses galore now. But why should we help by them by working fast and getting the orders out if it just means they'll leave quicker?"
Local MP Adam Ingram says: "Their American owners won't speak to me, and they instructed the management there not to speak to me either. There is real veil of secrecy. The employees here have been extremely hard-working over the years, and they deserve to know what the future holds for them."
“We’re dealing with private equity companies which are secretive organizations”, says Andrew Dodgshon of the Unite union which represents some of the Freescale workers, “we may have good relationships with the local management, but they are not any better informed than we are, because of the private equity owners. That’s not unique to East Kilbride, it’s the nature of private equity owners.”
Last week, in a report by The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) to the UK government, aimed at heading off an increase in the 10 per cent tax which private equity companies pay on their profits (which they call ‘carried interest’) the BVCA stated:
“Any substantial change in UK tax rates would make the UK significantly less attractive than these other countries and risks significant movement of the private equity industry offshore.”
There’s only one answer to that.
Cheerio
TOMORROW: THE TEN BEST MEMORY CHIPS
Subscribe to this blog's feed